Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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Prof. DR. Rudolf Schulten
Nuclear Research Centre Julich
May I INTRODUCE myself. My name is Schulten. 1 work In the
Nuclear Research Centre Julich which is located near Cologne
IN Germany and which is one of the two big nuclear centers
in my country. I AM WORKING THERE AS THE LEADER OF THE HTR
Development since more than 20 years. At the same time in the
last years, i am also the vice president of the technical uni-
VERSITY IN Aachen. I was in charge of the construction of the
AVR, the first High Temperature reactor in Germany, and I was
also the project leader for the planning and development of the
second high temperature reactor - the thtr, a plant of 300 mw(e).
The German HTR-Program now is going on since more than 20 years.
The main goal of the development is: "reactors with passive safety".
Since about 20 years we have the AVR reactor with 15 MW(e) and
950 °C IN operation quite successfully, since several months
the THTR has been in startup operations.
In the 20 years development program a large number of experiments
have been made. The most important are fuel element tests, safety
experiments, tests for corrosion, earthquakes, and concrete vessels.
A LARGE number OF PHYSICAL CALCULATIONS AND SAFETY ANALYSIS OF
THIS reactor type HAVE BEEN MADE. THE SAFETY ANALYSIS HAVE BEEN
PROVED AND AGREED BY LICENSING AUTHORITIES. ALSO, A LOT OF EXPERI-
MENTS AND STUDIES HAVE BEEN MADE FOR THE APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR