Brookhaven high flux reactor

Brookhaven National Laboratory’s High Flux Beam Research Reactor went critical for the first time at the end of October. Under construction since September 1961, the 40‐MW, heavy‐water cooled and moderated HFBR is fueled with enriched uranium alloyed with aluminum and silicon and clad with wrought magnesium‐silicon‐aluminum alloy. The core region will have a flux of more than ${\text{1.6×10}}^{15}\hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{n}/{\mathrm{cm}}^2/\sec .$ Altogether there are sixteen experimental facilities associated with the reactor. Nine beams are conducted through tubes beyond the shield for external experiments. External beams of thermal neutrons are produced by a heavy water reflector and beam‐tube system that reduces the last neutron background to a minimum. Inside the reactor there are four facilities for fast neutrons in the core region and three for slow neutrons in the heavy water reflector.