Present status of the low temperature irradiation facility (horizontal type) at KUR

The low temperature irradiation facility of the Kyoto University research reactor (KUR-LTL) was installed in 1968 for the purpose of fundamentally elucidating the effect of neutron irradiation on various materials, and after the functional and characteristic tests, it has been utilized briskly as the experimental facility for the joint utilization by the universities and research institutes in whole Japan, and has achieved research results. At present, only the facility in Muenchen, Germany and the KUR-LTL are in operation. However recently, the development of nuclear fusion reactors becomes a real subject, and the effect of irradiation at low temperature on superconducting magnet materials and high temperature superconducting oxides attracts attention. In order to improve the insufficient performance of the KUR, the plan of installing a vertical loop from the reactor top to the immediate vicinity of fuel assemblies has been promoted, but it is not yet approved. The features of the horizontal KUR-LTL, the neutron spectra in the irradiation facility, the distribution and the time variation of neutron flux are reported. (K.I.)