VENUS - zero-power critical facility What was VENUS used for?
The VENUS reactor is an experimental low-powered reactor of the
“zero-power critical facility” type. It was critical for the
first time in 1964 with a water-moderated core. VENUS was
converted in 1968 to carry out neutron studies of new reactor
configurations. Large power reactor cores were reproduced on a
small scale (about 50 x 50 x 50 cm). The VENUS reactor was
modernised in 1991 and in 2000-2001, the internal parts of the
reactor vessel were modified in order to enable to load fuel of
1 m instead of 50 cm for new application areas. Calculations for
a more efficient fuel use VENUS has been used for the validation
of reactor codes. These codes are applied to make more efficient
use of the core loading during the exploitation of nuclear
installations. They have proven their usefulness for the
determination of the optimal nuclear fuel configuration with
regard to parameters like power distribution, neutron economy
and neutron irradiation of the rea