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] Due to the obsolescence of the instrumentation and control system of the nuclear research reactor IAN-R1, the Institute of Geology and Mining of Colombia, IngeoMinas, launched an international convoking for renewal it which was won by the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ). Within systems to design, the reactor protection system is described as important for safety, because this carried out, among others two primary functions: 1) ensuring the reactor shutdown safely, and 2) controlling the interlocks to protect against operational errors if defined conditions have not been met. To fulfill these functions, the various subsystems related to the safety report the state in which they are using binary signals and are connected to the inputs of two redundant logic wiring circuits called action logics (Al) that are part of the reactor protection system. These Al also serve as logical interface to indicate at all times the status of subsystems, both the operator and other systems. In the event that any of the subsystems indicates a state of insecurity in the reactor, the Al generate signals off (or scram) of the reactor, maintaining the interlock until the operator sends a reset signal. In this paper the design, implementation, verification and testing of circuits that make up the Al 1 and 2 of IAN-R1 reactor is described, considering the fulfillment of the requirements that the different international standards imposed on this type of design. (Author)

[en] This paper presents the neutronic analysis for the conversion of the 10 Kw IAN-R1 research reactor from HEU (90%) to LEU (20%). By changing the number of LEU plates per standard element, five different LEU prototype cores are found acceptable in excess reactivity, and deeper studies with the lowest and highest δK/K% are carried out

[en] The IAN-R1 reactor was furnished to the Government of Colombia under the 'Atoms for Peace' program by the U.S. Government. The reactor was constructed by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and achieved initial critically at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Bogota on 20 January, 1965. The reactor core consists of aluminum clad MTR-type plate fuel elements containing fully-enriched uranium (HEU). The reactor was initially designed to operate at a steady-state power level of 20-kW but has operated at 30-kW for the past several years. The principal applications of the reactor are radioisotope production, radiochemistry, neutron activation analysis, training, and neutron beam physics. Beginning in 1987, a program was initiated to upgrade and modernize the reactor facility. The modernization program has included replacement of the original instrumentation and control system with a new state-of-the-art microprocessor-driven digital system and addition of a new radiation monitoring system

[en] The IAN-R1 research reactor has undergone continuous substantial changes involving modifications to the instrumentation, power and fuel. The reactor group of the Institute of Nuclear Science and Alternative Energy (INEA) of the Ministry of Mines and Energy has endeavoured to improve the physical security of the reactor installations. Colombia has undertaken to maintain adequate physical protection measures with respect to the installations and the materials supplied, as well as any special fissionable material used, including subsequent generations of fissionable material produced. The paper gives details of the level of physical protection and the implementation of physical protection measures and the IAN-R1 research reactor and of the new project currently being developed under which the present system of security installed in the reactor will be upgraded and greater security will be applied to other sensitive installations of INEA. (author)

[en] The IAN-R1 reactors has been operating by the Instituto de Asuntos Nucleares since early 1965. The reactor is used for the production of short lived radioisotopes, radiochemistry, neutron activation analysis and training. The power level is 30 kw. The reactor core consists of 16 HEU plate-type fuel elements, that have been in the core for over 26 years. At 1990 the instrumentation was replaced for a new control system with a microprocessor driven digital control console and data acquisition system. Last year it was installed a new radiation monitoring system and control rod drives with stepping motor drives. The future modifications of the reactor will include the core conversion to LEU and finally the increase of the power between 500 kw and 1 Mw

[en] The IAN-R1 reactor is the only nuclear reactor operating in Colombia; it is installed at the Institute of Nuclear Affairs (AIN) in Bogota, which is an official body coming under the Ministry of Mining and Energy. This reactor started operation in January 1965 with a rated power of 10 kW and was modified a year later to operate at 20 kW, which has been its rated power up to the present. Given its importance for the application of nuclear technology in Columbia for various purposes, principally in the areas of neutron activation analysis, determination of uranium content in minerals using the delayed neutron counting method, production of certain radioisotopes such as ¹⁹⁸Au and ⁸²Br for engineering applications, and production of radioactive material for teaching and research purposes, research has been in progress for some years into ways of increasing its power. The study on experimental requirements and on the demand for locally produced radioisotopes came to the conclusion that its power should be increased to 1000 kW, which would allow the facility to remain on the same site. The modification includes conversion of the core to low-enriched fuel, operation up to 1 MW, modification of the shielding, renovation of instrumentation and installation of a radioisotope processing plant. When the reactor is modified we will be able to produce other radioisotopes for applications in nuclear medicine, industry and engineering; at the same time, the safety of the facility will be optimized and the experimental facilities improved

[en] With cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) of the United States, several calculations and tasks related to the waste disposal of spent MTR fuel enriched nominally to 93% were carried out for the conversion of the IAN-R1 Research Reactor from MTR-HEU fuel to TRIGA-LEU fuel. In order to remove the spent MTR-HEU fuel of the core and store it safely a program was established at the Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares y Energias Alternativas (INEA). This program included training, acquisition of hardware and software, design and construction of a decay pool, transfer of the spent HEU fuel elements into the decay pool and his final transport to Savannah River in United States. In this paper are presented data of activities calculated for each relevant radionuclide present in spent MTR-HEU fuel elements of the IAN-R1 Research Reactor and the total activity. The total activity calculated takes in consideration contributions of fission, activation and actinides products. The data obtained were the base for shielding calculations for the decay pool concerning the storage of spent MTR-HEU fuel elements and the respective dosimetric evaluations in the transferring operations of fuel elements into the decay pool