Safety Assurance for Irradiating Experiments in the Advanced Test Reactor

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), was specifically designed to provide a high neutron flux test environment for conducting a variety of experiments. This paper addresses the safety assurance process for two general types of experiments conducted in the ATR facility and how the safety analyses for experiments are related to the ATR safety basis. One type of experiment is more routine and generally represents greater risks; therefore, this type of experiment is addressed in more detail in the ATR safety basis. This allows the individual safety analysis for this type of experiment to be more standardized. The second type of experiment is defined in more general terms in the ATR safety basis and is permitted under more general controls. Therefore, the individual safety analysis for the second type of experiment tends to be more unique and is tailored to each experiment