Opal news
On 20 April 2007, the Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon. John Howard MP, formally opened the new OPAL research reactor
OPAL is now running its fifth cycle which started on 15 June 2007 and will end on 16 July. After a five-day shutdown the reactor will restart on 21 July and operate until 16 August. The repair against seepage of light water into heavy water is planned for the August shutdown. After the repair, there will be a few cycles to monitor the quality of the heavy water, before purification. The reactor operation schedule until the end of the year will be fixed following the repair of the seepage.
The cold-neutron source is running well, and first flux measurements and spectra have been taken on the cold guide which feeds the reflectometer Platypus. Total neutron-capture flux is 1.7·1010 ncm-2s-1, which compares favourably with expectation. Initial measurement of the cold-neutron spectrum peaks at around 3 ?ngstroms.