Philippine Research Reactor-1


The Philippine Research Reactor-1 is an inactive research reactor for decommissioning in Quezon City, Philippines. The PRR-1 is the first nuclear reactor in the Philippines.

History

The Philippine Research Reactor was built under the Atoms for Peace nuclear research exchange program of the United States. The reactor which had its first criticality in August 26, 1963, was built by U.S. firm General Atomics and was originally a 1MW open general-purpose reactor.
The Philippine Atomic Energy Commission decided to convert the reactor into a TRIGA Mark III reactor in 1984. The converted reactor achieved criticality in April 1988. It had a capacity of 3MW and has the ability to use low-enriched uranium instead of highly enriched uranium. On the same year, the reactor pool had a leak which led to the reactor being shut down. There were plans to repair the reactor with collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency but such plans were abandoned.
In 2005, it was decided that the reactor would be decommissioned.