Soreq Nuclear Research Center's reactor to shut down in 8 years

The Soreq Nuclear Research Center stands to shut down its reactor in about eight years, Dr. Shaul Horev, director-general of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC), revealed recently.

The Nuclear Research Center in Soreq was built in 1958, as one of the two nuclear research facilities operating in Israel. Subject to the IAEC, the Soreq center focuses on civilian developments on nuclear energy for electricity, medical and agricultural use, as well as for space research, laser and satellite durability advances.

Shutting down the 5-Megawatt reactor will be made possible thanks to a new particle accelerator, purchased from Germany. Once it arrives, gets installed and tested, it would be able to take over for the center's nuclear reactor.

Committee members at Soreq (Photo: The Nuclear Research Center)

According to the Nuclear Research Center, the new particle accelerator is electricity-based and considered the fastest of its kind in the world. All preparations are expected to be completed in five years time; and be made operational in the three years after that.

The IAEC said the accelerator's main fortes are its safety and energy saving abilities. Once in use, the accelerator is expected to significantly ease the complex safety sequence needed to safely operate the existing reactor and prevent any dangers of radioactive leaks.

The safer choice

The new accelerator will also allow the center of tackle any malfunction immediately, as opposed to the existing satiation, in which dealing with any malfunction required waiting for the radiation to subside.

Earlier in the week, Horev guided the members of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee through the facility, in the first-ever tour given to MKs who are not members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Along with Home Front Command officials, and representatives from the Defense and Environmental Protection Ministries, Horev briefed the MKs on the facility's operations, safety procedures, radioactive waste disposal measures and environment goals – one of which will be accomplished once it shuts down in favor of the new particle accelerator.

Head of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor-Meimad), said that he was "happy that nuclear information was no longer reserved only for the defense establishment."

Pines added he got the impression that "the environment was high on the IAEC's list of priorities… the new developments which are being made with safety in mind are in accordance with the global trend to conserving the environment."

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) told Ynet he welcomed the induction of the new particle accelerator, as it was a choice safer than a nuclear reactor. Khenin did, however, express his reservations of "any nuclear option, regardless of its field."