Fast Breeder Development in Germany and the Benelux-Countries

The German-Benelux fast breeder project started in 1959/60 without the benefit of any previous development work on metal fueled fast breeder technology. Even experience in thermal reactor technology was not very large and had to be gained by industry in adopting the know-how of the US-development. So the work done for the first phase of the project at the Karlsruhe research centre was practically independent of industry. The first activities were to establish analytical methods and to install large physical test facilities. These included the SNEAK facility, a zero-power reactor, properly designed for the use of plutonium fuel, and the SEFOR reactor, which was build in co-operation with GE in America and also with the participation of EURATOM. Besides this, considerable facilities for the investigation of the fuel cycle technology were installed, such as gas tight hot cells, plutonium laboratories for fuel fabrication and research capacities for the reprocessing of spent fuel breeder fuel.