Sapphire (nuclear reactor)
Saphir was the name of the first nuclear reactor that went into operation in Switzerland in 1957 at the Würenlingen site .
Sapphire was a research reactor with very low thermal output that was purchased turnkey from the USA. Due to its design - the fuel elements dipped into a simple water basin - this light water reactor was also called a swimming pool reactor . It was financed by state funds and by the private-sector Reaktor AG under the management of Walter Boveri .
The reactor was purchased at the same time as Swiss research activities in the field of nuclear energy were started, and the Federal Institute for Reactor Research at the same location was not formally founded until three years later. Also in 1960, the second Swiss reactor, the Diorit research reactor with dual use properties, went into operation.
In 1994 Saphir was taken out of operation, today it has been dismantled except for the still standing reactor building.
literature
- Nuclear energy dossier , WOZ Die Wochenzeitung , January 1992
- Supervisory report of the Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) from 2015
Coordinates: 47 ° 32 '10 " N , 8 ° 13' 22" E ; CH1903: six hundred fifty-nine thousand and forty-three / 265337