The educational document of operation and management for Kyoto-University nuclear research reactor facility. Experience of operation and management for 40 years (No.1)

The author has worked as an operator and a maintenance man in the research reactor and its auxiliary facilities of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI) for 40 years. For the purpose of future education of the members in research reactor division, I have arranged this report based on my past experience of 40 years. In this report, a lot of valuable experiences on the phenomena and the omens of accident, etc., which were happened beyond our imagination in the research reactor, are included. The management of a nuclear reactor facility always links with the radioactivity issues. Any small accident will cause a great social problem and influences the life of the people greatly. Therefore, we should be very prudent and should avoid making any mistakes in the operation and routine management. This report covers the information on the original research reactor construction, the first record of the critical stage of the research reactor, the first record of the achievement of 5 MW in nominal maximum power, as well as the phenomena beyond our imagination and the information on the radioactive leak accidents, etc., within the past 40 years. It takes me 40 years to obtain these experiences of operation and management. I am thinking that I should transfer these experiences to the younger generation. That is the reason I wrote this report. In order to change the high enriched uranium fuel assemblies into the low enriched uranium fuel assemblies, Kyoto University research Reactor (KUR) is under maintenance now. KUR will be re-started to operate in the coming future, if the maintenance and other preparation are completed smoothly. I will be very happy if this report can play some roles in the future research reactor operation and maintenances. (author)