Safety aspects of the planned Munich compact core research reactor

This paper reports on the research reactor at Garching (near Munich) designed to supply a high thermal neutron flux outside of the core at a low reactor power. This goal can be achieved by providing for a particularly compact, light water cooled core in the center of a large heavy water moderator tank. The safety concept of the new reactor will be characterized by: various barriers against the release of fission products---two diverse shutdown systems---the cooling circuits being thermohydraulically connected with the large thermal capacity of the pool water ---three independent battery-driven emergency cooling systems---and an efficient reactor protection system