- TRIGA
[
thumb|230px|Picture_of_a_TRIGA_reactor_core._Notice_the_glow_caused_by_Cherenkov radiation .] TRIGA is a class of smallnuclear reactor designed and manufactured byGeneral Atomics of theUSA . TRIGA is an acronym of "Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics". The design team for TRIGA was led by the physicistFreeman Dyson .Design
TRIGA is a
pool-type reactor that can be installed without a containment building, and is designed for use by scientific institutions and universities for purposes such as undergraduate and graduate education, private commercial research, non-destructive testing andisotope production.The TRIGA reactor uses uranium-zirconium-hydride (UZrH) fuel, which has a large, prompt negative thermal coefficient of reactivity, meaning that as the temperature of the core increases, the reactivity rapidly decreases — so it is highly unlikely, though not impossible for a meltdown to occur. TRIGA was originally designed to be fuelled with
highly enriched uranium , but in 1978 theU.S. Department of Energy launched its Reduced Enrichment for Research Test Reactors program, which promoted reactor conversion tolow-enriched uranium fuel. [ [http://www.nnsa.doe.gov/na-20/frrsnf.shtml NA-25 Radiological Threat Reduction Program ] ]History
The TRIGA was developed to be a reactor that, in the words of
Frederic de Hoffmann , head ofGeneral Atomics , was designed to be "safe even in the hands of a young graduate student." [ Teller, "Memoirs", p. 423.]Edward Teller headed a group of young nuclear physicists inSan Diego in the summer of 1956 to design a reactor which could not, by its design, suffer from a meltdown. The design was largely the suggestion ofFreeman Dyson . The prototype for the TRIGA nuclear reactor (TRIGA Mark I) was commissioned on3 May 1958 inSan Diego and operated until shut down in1997 . It has been designated as a nuclear historic landmark by theAmerican Nuclear Society .Mark II, Mark III and other variants of the TRIGA design have subsequently been produced, and a total of 35 TRIGA reactors have been installed at locations across the USA. A further 35 reactors have been installed in other countries. Many of these installations were prompted by US President Eisenhower's
1953 policy of "Atoms for Peace " which sought to extend access to nuclear physics to countries in the American sphere of influence. Consequently, TRIGA reactors can be found in such diverse locations asColombia ,Austria ,Finland ,Slovenia ,Italy ,Japan ,Malaysia ,Bangladesh , Congo,Brazil ,Germany ,Philippines ,Puerto Rico ,Vietnam ,Mexico andIndonesia .TRIGA International, a joint venture between General Atomics and CERCA — a subsidiary of
AREVA of France — was established in 1996. Since then TRIGA fuel assemblies have been manufactured at CERCA's plant inRomans-sur-Isère ,France .New TRIGA installations by General Atomics are underway in
Morocco ,Thailand andRomania .Some of the main competitors to General Atomics in the supply of research reactors are
Framatome ofFrance ,Siemens AG ofGermany andINVAP ofArgentina .ee also
*
List of nuclear reactors References
*Edward Teller, "Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics" (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001).
Notes
External links
* [http://triga.ga.com/ General Atomics official TRIGA website]
* [http://triga.ga.com/45years.html TRIGA history webpage]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
