The Ewa Reactor was

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

's first research

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

. Its name was derived from the first letters of the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

words: ''Eksperymentalny'' (Experimental), ''Wodny'' (Water), and ''Atomowy'' (Atomic) as a reference to

Ève Curie Ève Denise Curie Labouisse (; December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007) was a French and American writer, journalist and pianist. Ève Curie was the younger daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. Her sister was Irène Joliot-Curie a ...

History

The reactor was activated on June 14, 1958, in the Instytut Badań Jądrowych (Institute of Nuclear Research) (Currently the Instytut Energii Atomowej tomic Energy Institute) in

Otwock Otwock is a city in east-central Poland, some southeast of Warsaw, with 44,635 inhabitants (2019). Otwock is a part of the Warsaw Agglomeration. It is situated on the right bank of Vistula River below the mouth of Swider River. Otwock is hom ...

near

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. It was deactivated it in February 1995 due to a shortage of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

for experiments, and reactivated in April of the same year after the acquisition of new fuel. The reactor is currently deactivated and partially dismantled. Ewa was based on the Soviet VVR-S design, had an initial power of 2 MW, was fueled by

enriched uranium Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...

, and moderated by pressurized water. In 1963 and 1967, the reactor underwent two major overhauls that improved the safety of the reaction and allowed for the use of better enriched fuels. After these changes, the reactor's power increased first to 4 MW and ultimately to 10 MW. Its primary use was for producing radioactive

isotopes Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...

. It functioned an average of 3,500 hours a year. Because of its design, the reactor is currently considered a potential site for the future site of storage of the spent fuel from the

Maria reactor The Maria reactor is Poland's second nuclear research reactor and is the only one still in use. It is located at Narodowe Centrum Badań Jądrowych (NCBJ) (National Center for Nuclear Research) at Świerk-Otwock, near Warsaw and named in honor of ...

History

References

See also