Research reactor Munich

Research reactor Munich
The FRM with its characteristic dome
location
Coordinates	48 ° 15 ′ 57 "  N , 11 ° 40 ′ 27"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 57 "  N , 11 ° 40 ′ 27"  E
country	Germany
Data
operator	Technical University of Munich
start of building	November 6, 1956
Installation	October 31, 1957
Shutdown	July 28, 2000
Reactor type	Swimming pool reactor
Thermal performance	4 MW
Neutron flux density	6.6 × 10 12  n / (cm 2 s)
Website	Info from the Technical University of Munich
was standing	February 1, 2009

The Munich Research Reactor ( FRM ) in Garching near Munich was commissioned on October 31, 1957 as the first research reactor in Germany . It belongs to the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The reactor was shut down on July 28, 2000 at 10:30 a.m. It was replaced by the neighboring research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (Research Reactor Munich II).

Garching coat of arms

Because of its egg-shaped dome designed by Gerhard Weber , often referred to as the Garching atomic egg , which is also part of the coat of arms of the city of Garching in the district of Munich , the reactor is a listed building . The sight of the facility on the right of the autobahn to Nuremberg shortly before the exit to Garching is characteristic. The "egg" should be gutted, that is, the radioactive components should be removed from the interior. After that it will serve as an outbuilding for the neutron source. The time for the dismantling was estimated at 10 to 15 years in 2014.

history

The fundamental decision to build the research reactor was suggested by the physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz , who then also became the first scientific director. Construction began on November 6, 1956. Commissioning took place on October 31, 1957. In 1958, Lothar Köster was appointed as the first deputy and from 1960 as the technical director of the FRM. The atomic egg was the first nuclear facility in the Federal Republic of Germany. From the mid-1980s, there were plans to increase the performance of the FRM. In 1992, however, the Science Council recommended the construction of a more powerful research reactor. The FRM was shut down on July 28, 2000; the FRM II was started up on March 2, 2004 for the first time.

technology

The Munich research reactor was a swimming pool reactor / MTR with a thermal output of 4 MW. It served as a neutron source for research. The achievable neutron flux density was 6.6 × 10 ¹² n / (cm² s).

literature

• Georg Paula , Timm Weski: District of Munich (= Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Monuments in Bavaria . Volume I.17 ). Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-87490-576-4 , p. 56 .

See also

• Research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz
• List of nuclear facilities
• List of nuclear reactors in Germany

Web links

Commons : Research Reactor Munich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• 40 years of Atom-Ei Garching. (PDF) TU Munich, October 1997, accessed on January 16, 2018 . 
• Dirk Eidemüller: Garchinger Atom-Ei: The hour of birth of German neutron research. In: Spectrum of Science. October 20, 2017, accessed January 16, 2018 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nuclear egg is gutted. Technical University of Munich, June 11, 2014, accessed on January 16, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Helmut Rauch : Obituary for Lothar Köster . Physik Journal 15 (2016) No. 1, p. 48.
3. ↑ BT-Drs. 12/2984 : Reply of the Federal Government