The history and perspective of Romania-USA cooperation in the field of technologic transfer of TRIGA reactor concept

The cooperation between Romania and the USA in the field of technologic transfer of nuclear research reactor technology began with the steady state 14 MWt TRIGA reactor, installed at INR Pitesti, Romania. It is the first in the range of TRIGA reactors proposed as a materials testing reactor. The first criticality was reached in November 19, 1979 and first operation at 14 MWt level was in February 1980. The paper will present the short history of this cooperation and the perspective for a new cooperation for building a Nuclear Heating Plant using the TRIGA reactor concept for demonstration purpose. The energy crisis is a world-wide problem which affects each country in different ways because the resources and the consumption are unfairly distributed. World-wide research points out that the fossil fuel sources are not to be considered the main energy sources for the long term as they are limited