Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor (BGRR) was a

research reactor Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritim ...

located at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

, a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in

Upton, New York Upton is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located on Eastern Long Island in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is the home of the Brookhaven National Laboratory and a National Weather Service (NWS) We ...

, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, approximately 60 miles east of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.Brookhaven History: Using Reactors as Research Tools - Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor
Brookhaven National Laboratory. Accessed December 19, 2020 The BGRR operated from 1950 until 1968 and has been fully decommissioned.https://www.bnl.gov/bgrr/ Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor. BNL Environmental Protection Division. Accessed December 19, 2020.

History

The BGRR was the first nuclear reactor built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

for exclusively peaceful use. It was the first reactor constructed at BNL. The primary purposes of the BGRR were to produce

neutrons The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the f ...

for scientific use and to refine nuclear reactor design. The reactor provided a source of neutrons for multidisciplinary scientific research in materials science, chemistry, biology, and physics. Construction started on the reactor in 1947 and it became operational in August 1950.https://riverheadlocal.com/2012/07/19/decommissioning-of-nations-first-peacetime-research-reactor-completed-at-bnl/ Civiletti, Denise. "Decommissioning of nation’s first peacetime research reactor completed at BNL." Riverhead Local. July 19, 2012.

Design

The BGRR was an air cooled, graphite moderated, uranium fueled research reactor. The 700 ton reactor core consisted of a graphite cube 25 ft. on a side constructed from over 60,000 individual pieces of graphite. The reactor was cooled by air drawn through the core by three 1,000 hp. fans. The biological shield was constructed of high-density concrete containing steel spheres and the notably dense

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as , although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary qu ...

. As a research reactor, BGRR never had a power conversion system to generate electricity; heat from the nuclear reactions was exhausted through a tall stack to the atmosphere. The BGRR fuel elements were charged and discharged through graphite channel openings on the south pile face. Reactor operations were controlled by the position of 16

control rods Control rods are used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission of the nuclear fuel – uranium or plutonium. Their compositions include chemical elements such as boron, cadmium, silver, hafnium, or indium, that are capable of absorbing ...

that penetrated the reactor horizontally in directions parallel to the diagonals of the reactor base. The initial fuel of the BGRR was natural

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

(NU) which utilized aluminum fuel elements that were 11 feet long and contained 33 NU fuel slugs each. During the operation with the NU fuel, there were 28 fuel element failures. In 1958, the NU fuel was replaced with highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel clad with aluminum. Each HEU element was 24 inches long. The fuel elements each contained 15 grams of HEU at 93%

uranium-235 Uranium-235 ( or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exists in nat ...

. The fissionable material was a uranium-aluminum alloy slab, covered on the top and bottom by aluminum sheets at least 20 mils thick with the edges welded all around. The reactor was designed for 32 megawatts thermal, with a design-operating limit of 28 megawatts thermal for NU fuel. The reactor normally operated at approximately 20 megawatts with HEU. The reactor facility design included both neutron beam lines for experiments external to the reactor core and also pipe loops which allowed experiments to be conducted as fluids flowed through the operating reactor core. External to the reactor building, and shared with the subsequently constructed HFBR, was the Reactor Bypass Filter Facility (RBFF). This facility provided improved air cleaning prior to exhaust to the atmosphere in the unlikely event of a fuel element failure at either the BGRR or the HFBR. It also provided sufficient air cleaning to allow the use of air cooling as a method of combating a graphite fire at the BGRR. The facility was placed into operation in 1965.https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/4508009 The Design, Test and Use of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Reactor Bypass Filter Facility. August 22, 1966.

Decommissioning

After operating for 18 years, BGRR was functionally obsolete. The BGRR was placed in standby mode in June 1968, then permanently shut down in 1969. All fuel was removed from the reactor and shipped to the

Savannah River Site The Savannah River Site (SRS), formerly the Savannah River Plant, is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reservation in the United States, located in the state of South Carolina on land in Aiken, Allendale and Barnwell counties adjacent to the ...

by 1972. The BGRR was fully decommissioned in 2012 following a 13-year, $148 million process. Contaminated materials were shipped to Nevada and Utah for disposal. Several buildings and structures which housed the BGRR and associated facilities remain in safe storage or repurposed for other uses as of 2020.https://www.bnl.gov/bgrr/bgrr-complex.php Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor Complex Description. BNL Environmental Protection Division. Accessed December 19, 2020. Over its lifetime an estimated 25,000 individual experiments were performed by the reactor and accompanying scientists and engineers. The BGRR was the predecessor for the High Flux Beam Reactor also located at BNL. The red and white, 320-foot-tall exhaust stack constructed for the BGRR in 1949 and later shared with the HFBR was a distinctive landmark for the area until its demolition in 2020.https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/cleanup-workers-set-tear-down-iconic-brookhaven-reactor-stack-year Cleanup Workers Set to Tear Down Iconic Brookhaven Reactor Stack This Year. February 25, 2020. Department of Energy.

References

;Citations

External links

* *Department of Energy Photo of the Week (May 30, 2014): The Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor - https://www.energy.gov/articles/photo-week-brookhaven-graphite-research-reactor {{U.S. Nuclear Plants Nuclear research reactors

History

Design

Decommissioning

See also

References

External links