ETRR-1
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ETRR-1 or ET-RR-1 (''Experimental Training Research Reactor Number one'', and sometimes called ''Egypt Test and Research Reactor Number one''), is the first nuclear reactor in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
supplied by the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in 1958. The reactor is owned and operated by
Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority The Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) has been established in 1955. It leads the national research and development in the basic and applied peaceful nuclear research. Egypt was the second in the African Continent, after South Africa, to build ...
(AEA) at the Nuclear Research Center in
Inshas Inshas ( ar, أنشاص الرمل) is a village located in Bilbeis, Sharqia Governorate, 60 kilometers east of Cairo, Egypt. It holds the first experimental nuclear reactor to be operated in Egypt ETRR-1 as well as the second experimental reactor ...
, northeast of
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
. ETRR-1 is the second oldest research reactor in the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, after the Israeli IRR-1 reactor.


Overview

The reactor is a Light Water tank type WWR 2 MW research reactor with an initial fuel load of 10%
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 (238U ...
U235 (EK-10) imported from Russia, since then the reactor had never been refueled. In the 1980s, ETRR-1 reactor was shut down to modernize and extend the reactor's operability by the
International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...
(IAEA).


Unreported nuclear experiments

In March 2001 and July 2002, the IAEA was investigating on the environmental samples which was taken from the ETRR-1's
hot cell Shielded nuclear radiation containment chambers are commonly referred to as hot cells. The word "hot" refers to radioactivity. Hot cells are used in both the nuclear-energy and the nuclear-medicines industries. They are required to protect ind ...
s that revealed traces of
actinide The actinide () or actinoid () series encompasses the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers from 89 to 103, actinium through lawrencium. The actinide series derives its name from the first element in the series, actinium. The inform ...
s and
fission product Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release ...
s, which was explained by
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
in July 2003, that the presence of the particles was attributed by a damaged nuclear fuel cladding resulted in contamination of the reactor water that penetrated the hot cells from irradiated sample cans. In 2004–2005, an investigation by IAEA discovered that between 1999 and 2003,
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
conducted about 12 unreported experiments, performed using a total of 1.15g of natural uranium compounds and 9
thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...
samples had been irradiated and conducted at the ETRR-1 to test the production of fission product isotopes for medical purposes. The irradiated compounds had been dissolved in three laboratories, located in the Nuclear Chemistry Building with no
plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
or U-233 being separated during these experiments.
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
justified its reporting failures, as the government and the IAEA had “differing interpretations” of Egypt's
safeguards A safeguard, in international law, is a restraint on international trade or economic development to protect communities from development aggression or home industries from foreign competition. In the World Trade Organization (WTO), a member may t ...
obligations and emphasizing that the country's “''nuclear activities are strictly for peaceful purposes''” Accordingly,
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
maintained full cooperation during the 2004–2005 investigation, and had taken corrective actions by submitting inventory change reports (ICRs) and providing a modified design information for the ETRR-1 reactor. In 2009, The IAEA's Safeguards Implementation Report (SIR) for 2008, concludes that earlier issues of undeclared nuclear activities and material reported to the
Board of Governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...
in February 2005, are no longer outstanding, as the IAEA found no discrepancies between what have been declared during the investigation, and IAEA's findings and no evidences of extraction of plutonium or enrichment of uranium.


Accidents

*In April 2010, one of the cooling pumps of the ETRR-1's reactor broke, according to Mohamed Al-Qolali, the Director of the
Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority The Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) has been established in 1955. It leads the national research and development in the basic and applied peaceful nuclear research. Egypt was the second in the African Continent, after South Africa, to build ...
, the accident was immediately fixed without any radioactive water leakage, as this incident happened due to operating the reactor without receiving safe operation permission from the Nuclear Safety Authority. According to Al-Qolali, the reactor director and the operating manager were responsible for the accident and there were two visits by IAEA, one on July and another one on August, to ensure that the security measures had been taken, and they recommend for urgent renovation of the aging reactor, in order to restoring operations. *On 25 May 2011, another incident of water leakage happened again for the second time, due to explosion in the reactor's pump, which released of radioactive water, according to a source at the
Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( ...
said to a Rose El Youssef newspaper, that the disaster is considered to be a third degree, according to the IAEA's
International Nuclear Event Scale The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents. The s ...
. The government and officials denied any radiation leaks, and attributed the accident to a leakage of water from a pump that has nothing to do with the normal fuel cycle. Finally, The
Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( ...
admitted of a leak of radioactive water from ETRR-1, with a zero risk to the reactor and the neighboring area, as the leaking fluid was immediately contained, according to Naguib Ashoub, Director of the Department of Reactors "''the first reactor is 50 years old and hasn't been operated for a year and a half''," and he explained that, "''the leak took place during the maintenance of the pump''," confirming that the safety measures had been taken without any leaks outside the chamber and that IAEA's inspectors visited the reactor, the day after the leak, without detecting any radiation. A contradicting statement by Samir Mekheimar, a former Director at the Nuclear Research Center said, "''the fact that the reactor was by mere chance not operated the next day saved the area from environmental disaster''." Also, he added, that the leak was due to an operator error and the AEA ordered its staff not to publicize the leak or face dismissal. In addition, according to Hani Amer, which was an Egyptian Nuclear Safety Agency's inspector who visited the site, attributed the accident due to a valve failure coolant from the primary reactor was not able to flow through the correct channels to the waste tanks, and no workers had been exposed to radioactivity and that,"''the radiation level was in the range of 1
microsievert The sievert (symbol: SvNot be confused with the sverdrup or the svedberg, two non-SI units that sometimes use the same symbol.) is a unit in the International System of Units (SI) intended to represent the stochastic health risk of ionizing radi ...
per hour, which is four times the normal background level of 0.25 microsievert per hour''."


Reactor specifications

''Data from''


General data

* Safeguards:
IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...
* Total Staff: 18 * No of Operators: 7


Technical data

* Reactor Type: Tank WWR * Thermal Power, Steady (kW): 2,000.00 * Max Flux SS, Thermal (n/cm2-s): 1.5E13 * Max Flux SS, Fast (n/cm2-s): 3.6E13 * Thermal Power, Pulsed (MW): 0.00 * Moderator: Light water * Coolant: Light water * Forced Cooling: * Coolant Velocity in Core: * Reflector: H2O * Control Rods Material: BC, SS * Control Rods number: 9


Experimental facilities

* Horizontal Channels: 9 * Horizontal Max Flux (n/cm2-s): 5.0E8 * Horizontal Use: Neutron physics, solid state, and shielding * Vertical Channels: 8 * Vertical Max Flux (n/cm2-s): 0.8E13 * Vertical Use: Production of radioisotopes * Core Irradiation Facilities: 1 * Core Max Flux (n/cm2-s): 0.8E13 * Loops Max Flux: 1.0E13


Fuel data

* Origin of Fissile Material: Russia * Enrichment Supplier: Russia * Equilibrium Core Size: 44 * Rods per Element: 16 * Dimensions of Rods: diameter, * Cladding Material: Aluminum alloy * Cladding Thickness: * Fuel Thickness: * Burnup on Discharge, max %: 25 * Burnup Average, %: 20 * Fuel Fabricator: Russia


Utilization

* Hours per Day: 3 * Days per Week: 3 * Weeks per Year: 20 * MW Days per Year: 96 * Materials/fuel test experiments: No * Neutron Scattering: No * Neutron Radiography: No * Neutron capture therapy: No * Activation Analysis: No * Transmutation: No * Geochronology: No * Other Uses: Solid state, nuclear, and reactor physics, chemical research, isotope production, and biological irradiation


See also

*
ETRR-2 ETRR-2 or ET-RR-2 (''Experimental Training Research Reactor Number two''), (''Egypt Test and Research Reactor Number two'') or (''Multi-Purpose Reactor'') is the second nuclear reactor in Egypt supplied by the Argentine company Investigacion Apl ...
*
Nuclear program of Egypt President Adly Mansour announced on 7 November 2013 that Egypt was restarting its nuclear power program in El Dabaa; a deal was reached with the residents in which it was agreed that a residential area will also be built. The Egyptian minister o ...
*
Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority The Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) has been established in 1955. It leads the national research and development in the basic and applied peaceful nuclear research. Egypt was the second in the African Continent, after South Africa, to build ...
*
List of nuclear reactors A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
* Fuel Manufacturing Pilot Plant


References

{{authority control Nuclear research reactors Nuclear technology in Egypt Research institutes in Egypt Light water reactors Nuclear program of Egypt 1961 establishments in Egypt Egypt–Soviet Union relations Neutron facilities