The Budapest Research Reactor (BRR) is a VVR-type (water-cooled, water-moderated) Soviet design reactor. It went critical in 1959. The initial thermal power was 2 MW. The first upgrade took place in 1967 when the power was increased to 5 MW using a new type of fuel and a beryllium reflector. A full-scale reactor reconstruction and upgrade project started in 1986, and finished in December 1992. The upgraded 10 MW reactor received the operation license in November 1993. According to the Hungarian safety regulations, a periodic safety review (PSR) was conducted in 2002-2003, as a result of this the operation license was renewed in November 2003 that is now valid until further notice. After every ten years of reactor operation the periodic safety review report has to be prepared. The new one was worked out in 2012. In the frame of this project the reactor tank and the storage tank were inspected.
Main technical data
Reactor type: Light-water cooled and moderated tank-type reactor with beryllium reflector
Fuel: VVR-SM(-M2) from November 2012,
190 fuel assemblies with less than 20 % 235U initial enrichment
Core geometry: Hexagonal (height: 600 mm; diameter: 1000 mm)
Equilibrium core: 190 fuel assemblies (in single equivalent)
Control: • 3 safety rods (B4C);
• 14 shim rods (B4C);
• 1 automatic (fine) rod (SS)
Nominal thermal power: 10 MW
Neutron flux density in the core: • 2.5 * 1014 n/cm2s (thermal in the flux trap)
• 1 * 1014 n/cm2s (approx. max. fast flux in the fast channel)