[en] Description of the organization of the Reactor Area at the Instituto de Asuntos Nucleares de Colombia, with objectives and activities in neutronic physics, thermal hydraulic, reactor instrumentation, reactor chemistry, radiological and physical as well as information on the installation equipment and services. The article presents a form of operational reactor facility

[en] The ''Instituto de Asuntos Nucleares'' of Colombia is responsible for IAN-R1 reactor operation, a 20 Kw. nuclear power machine, which became critical the first time on January 20th, 1965. The introduction of nuclear energy in Colombia has allowed to carry out many peaceful applications, where the reactor has played a significant role in support of these programmes. At this time, the main activities are: Educational and training activities; nuclear research; neutron activation analysis; delayed neutron analysis and radioisotopes production for using in agriculture, industry, hydrology and engineering. A description is made of the reactor aspects that have contributed to scientific and technological improvements

[en] The Reactor Group used the code WIMS reduced to five groups of energy, together with the code CITATION, and evaluated four configurations for a core, according to the grid actually installed. The four configurations were taken from the two proposals presented to the Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares y Energias Alternativas by General Atomics Company. In this paper, the Authors selected the best configuration according to the performance of flux distribution and excess reactivity, for a TRIGA core to be installed in the Nuclear Reactor IAN-R1

[en] From the thermal-hydraulics point of view, the nuclear reactor IAN-R1 was analyzed, with special attention to its power upgrade capabilities. In a first calorimetric evaluation, the nominal power was also calibrated as a consequence of a theoretical and experimental matching results

[en] The present work describes the procedure carried out for the preliminary determination of neutron flux parameters for the nuclear research reactor IAN-R1 (RNI IAN-R1) through the not covered triple monitor method in the nucleus peripheral irradiation position. Using this method, the thermal flux value (φ_th), the epithermal neutron flux symmetry factor (α) and the ratio between thermal neutron fluxes with respect to the epithermal neutron flux (f) were estimated. Those parameters were obtained by irradiating zirconium (Zr) monitors and a gold-aluminum alloy monitors (Au-Al 0.1% Au), which were irradiated at the G3 and G4 irradiation positions of the RNI IAN-R1. The following values were found for the parameters estimated at an operating power of 30 kW, φ_th= 2,1 * 10¹¹ cm² s^-1 (variance CV 4%), α = 0,02 (CV 83 %), and f =67 (CV 8 %). The high variance in α could be explained if we consider that the method only uses 3 capture reactions to describe the epithermal neutron spectrum. The variance could be improved by application of multimonitor methods for neutron flux characterization.

No abstract available

[en] En 2011, Mexico won the Colombian international tender for the renewal of instrumentation and control of the IAN-R1 Reactor, to Argentina and the United States. This paper presents the design criteria and the development made for the new digital control system installed in the Colombian nuclear reactor IAN-R1, which is based on a redundant and diverse architecture, which provides increased availability, reliability and safety in the reactor operation. This control system and associated instrumentation met all national export requirements, with the safety requirements established by the IAEA as well as the requirements demanded by the Colombian Regulatory Body in nuclear matter. On August 20, 2012, the Colombian IAN-R1 reactor reached its first criticality controlled with the new system developed at Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ). On September 14, 2012, the new control system of the Colombian IAN-R1 reactor was officially handed over to the Colombian authorities, this being the first time that Mexico exported nuclear technology through the ININ. Currently the reactor is operating successfully with the new control system, and has an operating license for 5 years. (Author)

[en] This paper describes the thermal power calibration and neutron flux measurement performed in order to have an approach to the IAN-R1 reactor core characterization in the framework of the recently acquired operating license for five years. (author)

[en] The associated Instrumentation & Control of the Research Nuclear Reactor IAN-R1, located in Colombia, was updated on the year 2012, as a direct result of the initiative by the Colombian Government represented by the Colombian Geological Survey (Servicio Geológico Colombiano). The result of the conversion from Highly-enriched MTR Nuclear fuel into Low-enrichment TRIGA Nuclear fuel guarantees a nuclear reactor that can be operated for several years. The present document presents the Current Technical Status (status of available infrastructure and utilization capabilities, including staff) of the reactor, its success stories, major achievements, and future prospects. (author)

[en] A distribution was obtained for the thermal neutron flux in the MTR-type fuel elements of the IAN-R1 research nuclear reactor. The flux mapping was carried out with the detector activation technique with the use of Au-197 leaves. The power generated by each fuel element and by the nucleus was determined. Similarly, using the same procedure, the thermal neutron flux was found in the location of the neutron detectors for the control and safety instrumentation used for the operation of the nuclear reactor. This measurement allowed us to diagnose the operating performance of this equipment