[en] Ageing management is one of the important safety factors to be implemented pro actively throughout the lifetime of a research reactor. In order to continue the safe operation of a research reactor from the reactor safety standpoint, a systematic and methodical approach should be taken. In practice, ageing management programme is accomplished by integrating the existing programmes including maintenance, periodic testing and inspection and periodic safety reviews. Such approach will be a good platform for the reactor operation and maintenance group to utilize data from existing maintenance programme to be incorporate into the ageing maintenance system. This paper will describe the ageing management programme for Reactor TRIGA PUSPATI (RTP). (Author)

[en] There are two TRIGA irradiation tubes mainly use at RTP: TRIGA irradiation tube for Rotary Rack (RR) and TRIGA tube for Pneumatic Transfer System (PTS). The tube is made from polyethylene and can be reused. After more than 30 years of operation, the TRIGA irradiation tube of RTP has been clean manually by the RTP staff. The aim of this paper is to carry out a study of the current process in order to detect the possible gaps in the process that will make possible conceptual design of the new cleaning system that fulfil those gaps. This paper proposed the conceptual design of the new cleaning system for RTP TRIGA Irradiation Tubes. (author)

[en] Systematic study to assess the concentration of radionuclides in primary coolant and associated water samples from the operation of a TRIGA Mark II reactor has been carried out. The samples were transferred into appropriate counting container and were counted by efficiency-calibrated gamma spectrometer systems for several hours to obtain statistically adequate data for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the radioactive materials presence. The primary coolant was found to contain various gamma emitting radionuclides including ²⁴Na, ⁴¹Ar, ⁴²K, ⁵¹Cr, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁵⁶Mn, ⁶⁰Co, ^99mTc, ¹²²Sb, ¹²⁴Sb and ¹⁸⁷W. Most of the detected radionuclides were inferred to be originated from activation products of (n,γ) nuclear reactions of elements of reactor components such as stainless steel and aluminium alloy used in the reactor system. The study confirms the integrity of the reactor system with no apparent release of any fission products radionuclide into the coolant water system. (author)

[en] The PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor has been utilized for more than 25 years using the same fuel elements and control rods. Generally, there are four control rods being used to control the neutron production inside the reactor core. A maintenance program has been developed to ensure its integrity, capability and safety of the reactor and it has been maintained twice a year since the first operation in 1982. The activities involve during the maintenance period including fuel elements and control rods inspections, electronics and mechanical systems, and others related works. During the maintenance in August 2008, there are some irregularities found on the fuel follower control rods and needed to be replaced. Even though the irregularities was not contributed into any unwanted incident, it were decided to replace with new control rods to avoid any potential hazards and unsafe condition occurred during operation later. Replacing any of the control rods would involved in imbalance of neutron flux and power distribution inside the core. Therefore, a number of fuel elements need to be reshuffled in order to compensate the neutron flux and power distribution as well as to balance the fuel elements burn-up in the core. This paper will described the fuel elements reshuffling and fuel follower control rods (FFCR) replacement for PUSPATI TRIGA Reactor. (Author)

[en] Full-text: As a consequence of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, the safety aspects of the one and only research reactor (31 years old) in Malaysia need be reviewed. Based on this decision, Malaysian Nuclear Agency in collaboration with Atomic Energy Licensing Board and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia develop a Level-1 Probability Safety Assessment on this research reactor. This work is aimed to evaluate the potential risks of incidents in RTP and at the same time to identify internal and external hazard that may cause any extreme initiating events. This report documents the methodology in developing a Level 1 PSA performed for the RTP as a complementary approach to deterministic safety analysis both in neutronics and thermal hydraulics. This Level-1 PSA work has been performed according to the procedures suggested in relevant IAEA publications and at the same time numbers of procedures has been developed as part of an Integrated Management System programme implemented in Nuclear Malaysia. (author)