The IGR Reactor complex

The IGR Reactor complex

The Impulse Graphite Reactor (IGR) was originally built to study damaging transients in channelized graphite reactors (e.g., the RBMK) at high fuel burnup. Sited on the Semipalatinsk Test Site about 30 km from the center of the Experimental Field, it was thought that it would be destroyed in testing with extensive release of radioactivity. Ironically, the IGR was not only not destroyed as expected, but in fact it has outlived many of the reactors its mission was intended to support. The IGR continues to operate sporadically under Kazakhstani ownership.