- 215 - The Jules Horowitz Reactor The Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) was licensed by the creation authorisation decree of 12 October 2009. It is under construction on the Cadarache site. The first divergence is planned for 2016 2017. The CEA Cadarache centre is located on the territory of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance village, on the left bank of the River Durance, on the Ravin de la Bête water table, a few kilometres downstream of the confluence of the rivers Verdon and the Durance. The nearest towns are Manosque (22,000 inhabitants) about fifteen kilometres to the north, and Aix-en-Provence (150,000 inhabitants) some thirty km to the south-west. The main communication routes and infrastructures follow the natural line of the Durance valley The JHR will be able to be used for activities similar to those carried out at present with the Osiris reactor. It will nevertheless integrate significant developments regarding both the experiments (experiments in the reactor core and the periphery) and safety. The maximum reactor power provided for in the authorisation decree is 100 MW. The JHR is intended to perform high neutron-flux irradiation experiments with a view to improving or qualifying the materials and fuel of existing and future reactors, and to produce a significant quantity of radioisotopes for medical uses. Further to the creation authorisation decree, ASN issued its decision No. 2011-DC-0226 of 27 May 2011 setting the technical design and construction requirements for the BNI. This decision both freezes certain analysis parameters used in preparation of the authorisation decree and institutes stopping points for performing certain operations with strong implications. Targeted measures aim at ensuring the regular transmission of information to ASN. Following the initial excavation, preparation and concrete-pouring work in 2009, embedding of the earthquake-resistant supports, reinforcement and concreting of the nuclear unit (UN) upper basemat in 2010, the civil engineering work continued in 2011 with the reinforcement and pouring of the first concrete walls of the nuclear auxiliaries building and of the containment vessel (reactor building) and the reinforcement before the pouring of the first concrete of the reactor pool. Pouring of the concrete for these latter two structures was subject to prior agreement of ASN in application of the abovementioned decision of 27 May 2011, and was authorised by ASN decision 2011-DC-0232 of 5 July 2011 for the containment vessel, and decision 2011-DC-0251 of 1 December 2011 for the reactor pool. The JHR facility comprises: a nuclear unit (UN) consisting of the reactor building (BUR) which forms the containment vessel, and the nuclear auxiliary building (BUA), which contains the spent fuel storage pools in particular, associated nuclear buildings containing the backup facilities among other things, buildings containing support means, notably for cooling. (Source CEA)
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