J^lb/33 194

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Statement by the Minister for National Development,   Senator the Hon. V/. Ih Spooner,  Ã¢ÂÂ   ,  MÃ¢ÂÂ

* * Â·  second nuclear reactor is being installed at Lucas Heights

by the Australian .atomic Energy Commission,

In announcing this to-day, the Minister for National Development,

Senator Spooner, explained that it would be a small and simple

apparatus by comparison with the Commission's first reactor, HIFAR.

It would be used in the Commission's general programme for the

development of a high temperature gas-cooled, reactor and would be

complementary to H O A R ,  which v;as a 10,000 kilowatt materials

testing reactor used also for making radio-isotopes. Production

of isotopes, which had. already begun,  formed a.n important part of

the Lucas Heights programmeÃ¢ÂÂ HIFa R had been operating at full

power since the beginning of the year,

HOAR was primarily intended for testing the metallurgical  and chemical behavour of reactor materials underÂ·extreme conditions

of radiation and temperature. The intense radiation necessarily

meant that experiments in 'bIF-vR were complicated. Many precautions

had to be taken in handling equipment and materials.

The new reactor would produce 10 kilowatts of heat and would

be a simple system to assemble,  operate and use. It would, be

employed for many tests and measurements where the intense radiation

of HliAR was unnecessary. These would include physics studies

of reactor material, and sample cores (fuel assemblies) for future

power reactor systems.

Because of its simplicity and inherent safety of operation,  the new reactor would also be used for training staff who would  eventually work on other reactors,.

The new reactor, known as a UTR-10 type, was a flexible  instrument,  providing a readily varied source of neutron flux. The experimental facilities available included aÂ· number of  irradiation cavities,  two easily accessible graphite faces to  provide a Large-area non iron source, and a large water-filled tank  for radiation shielding studies,

.  The whole reactor Assembly would be protected by a concrete  shield, the overall dimensions being approx!m. tcly 20 feet long, 17 feet wide and. 10 feet high. The reactor would be controlled  from a small console about 6 feet long, 6 feet high and 3 feet  deep.

SenÂ·:.tor Spooner said that tenders had been called, and the  contract to supply and commission the reactor had been awarded to  advanced Technology Laboratories, a division of ^merican-Standard,  of Mountain View, California,

Because all the basic facilities, staff and services required  to operate it were already at Lucas Heights, the reactor would be  installed and commissioned for a relatively modest sum of .about  S65,000, (HIA.R and its associated facilities cost roughly -52  million)o Ã¢ÂÂ

The complete reactor would be situated in a new building,   shortly to be erected at Lucas Heights, Tenders for tnis building  would be called within the next two or three weeks. Through the \

Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, whose x headquarters /ore also at Lucas Heights, the reactor would be  available to all Australian universi ties_  for their own research  and training programmes, subject to Commission requirements, Senator Spooner added,  CANBERRA "

March 3T I960

