Operational experience and safety experiments with the AVR power station

The AVR 15 MWe experimental nuclear power station in Jülich, which has been in operation since 1967, is the first power station with a pebble-bed high-temperature reactor. Succeeding HTR plants, in particular the smaller HTR-Module and HTR-100 facilities, have been developed on the basis of the AVR concept and experience gained during many years' operation.Operating results to date have confirmed the pebble-bed concept. Despite utilization of the plant for experimental purposes, mean time availability since 1967 has amounted to 67.5%. The inherent safety properties have been demonstrated in overall plant tests. In the current experimental programme, further experiments with the power plant will realistically demonstrate that the loss of coolant accident neither endangers the environment nor the plant itself.