Restart the research reactor in the second half of 2024

Work is underway to install the so-called new central canal. This tube keeps the fuel assembly in position and should be replaced after a drip. The exchange was necessary according to plan anyway. The French company that made the original part in 1999 was commissioned to manufacture the replacement part, but is no longer able to do so. Therefore, now an Austrian company must carry out this work and complete the central channel by the end of the year.

“We are vigorously pursuing this plan,” said FRM II Technical Director Axel Bichlmayer. Accordingly, after installation and several necessary tests in the reactor pool, it will take about six months before the FRM II can start operating again.

A controversial issue is highly enriched fuel. In November 2022, TUM, as operator of FRM II, announced that the reactor could also be powered with LEU. The spokeswoman said it was now a matter of putting this into practice. For example, fuel production must be developed. The application for transfer approval must then be submitted in 2025. It will be several years before the transfer actually takes place.

The conversion is intended to ensure continued operation into the future. Because of its 93 percent enriched uranium, the FRM II has been criticized for years. Opponents of nuclear weapons talk about weapons-grade materials and have filed a complaint with the Bavarian Administrative Court against the process. The operating license from 2003 required conversion to a lower enriched fuel as quickly as possible. The new fuel must be enriched to less than 20 percent.

(dpa)