In mid 1998, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) called for a prequalification of international companies to build a new 20 MW reactor for scientific research and radioisotope production that would replace an old English reactor built in 1958. Once again, INVAP was among the prequalified vendors, together with a German, a French and a Canadian company.
The tender imposed a great deal of participation of Australian companies and an agreement was reached with one of the most important companies to undertake the civil works, to provide mechanical manufacturing and conventional (non nuclear) systems and to do the final mounting. On the other hand, very specific experimental installations were required, and INVAP had no experience in some of them. To cover these areas, INVAP worked together with the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI), the Russian Nuclear Physics Institute of renown experience in the field of cold neutron sources; and with Mirrotron, a Hungarian company, which is nowadays the world reference in the provision of supermirrors used to manufacture neutron guides. As in previous reactors built by INVAP, nuclear fuel was manufactured by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA).
L¿Tenders were presented in January 2000 and by June, INVAP was informed that it has been declared "preferred tenderer". In July, a contract for some 180 million dollars was signed, which represents the largest cash sale export of a turnkey state-of-the-art technology plant, ever made by an Argentine company.
Reactor construction started in 2002, as soon as the Australian Nuclear Regulation Authority (ARPANSA) granted its permission. It first turned critical on August 12, 2006 and was officially inaugurated on April 20, 2007.
This Australian Reactor, named OPAL (Open Pool Australian Light water reactor) is one of the most modern of its kind. To give an idea of its complexity, we can only say that the moderator tank, built by INVAP Engineering S.A. in Bariloche is one of the most complex zircaloy welded pieces in the world. This tank hosts more than sixty positions to irradiate samples that are put in place by pneumatic systems and beams or guides to extract neutrons used for different scientific applications. The tank also hosts a cold neutron source that feeds one of these beams. This cold source is essentially a volume of liquid deuterium at a temperature of approximately 20º K (250 degrees below zero), located very close to the core. This component and all its associated systems were built and integrated jointly by INVAP, the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute of Russia and the French company Air Liquide.
OPAL Reactor Applications
The OPAL reactor provides services in the fields of medicine, environment, industry, agriculture, education and scientific research.
Medicine:
It guarantees the supply of radioisotopes for medical purposes, both for diagnosis and for radiotherapy. ANSTO provides irradiation services to hospitals for human tissue and bone banks, for sterilization of salt solutions used in heart and liver transplant surgical procedures and for sterilization of suture materials and bandages.
Environment:
Radioisotopes are used to carry out pollution studies in ocean and lake environments. They are used to study the evolution of coastline erosion and sedimentation phenomena and to follow the process of dissolution and distribution of industrial contaminants in the sea.
Industry:
The use of radioisotopes is widely spread as part of control systems in metallurgic, paper and chemical industries and is also popular in non destructive testing techniques to control welds and materials.
Mining and energy:
Mineral composition is analyzed using neutron activation analysis techniques, which are also used as support in prospection tasks and optimization processes for the extractive metallurgy.
Agriculture:
Irradiation of fruit fly pupae is an effective control method for this plague that affects horticulture. Radioisotopes are also used to sterilize products under quarantine.
Education:
Both the reactor and its research facilities provide an ideal environment for Australian universities to carry out educational activities. A rough estimate indicates that 15% of doctoral work in physics and engineering sciences in Australia used the reactor replaced by OPAL.
Science and Technology with neutron beams:
The scientific community ackowledges that neutrons produced by a Research Reactor are a unique tool to carry out both pure and applied scientific research in a wide range of science and technology disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. Since neutron research is "non-intrusive" (that is, it does not harm the subject under study), it is specially recommended to research the microstructure and properties of solid and liquid materials to support the development of new materials for the aerospace, automotive, biotechnology, petrochemical and telecommunications industries.
