Editorial: A Brief History of Neutron Scattering in Korea

Abstract

The current issue of Neutron News deals principally with presentations of neutron activities at the multipurpose High-flux Advanced Neutron Application Reactor (HANARO) operated by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). Before you read the discussions on HANARO, let us give you a brief look back at the history of research reactors in Korea. Certainly HANARO did not come about out of the blue. The first research reactor in Korea was a TRIGA MARK-II, a General Atomics, Co. design. It was built at KAERI's Gongreung-dong campus in Seoul and began operation in 1962. The 100 kW reactor is mediocre at best from today's point of view. Still it came with horizontal beam ports that provided neutrons to the first neutron instruments in Korea. Neutron scattering activities became more visible with the start-up of the second research reactor, the TRIGA MARK-III of a 2 MW thermal power, in 1972. It had four horizontal beam ports for neutron beam applications.