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BORAX-II during operation. |
BORAX-II was designed and built to replace BORAX-I to investigate a new reactor which would more closely approximate the characteristics of a practical power reactor operating on the boiling principle.
BORAX-II was constructed in late 1954. Tests of new core combinations were tried using varying enrichments of uranium-235 in the metal fuel plates. It was a boiling water system operating at 300 psi, making it essentially a power experiment. The power level was about 6.4 MW(t), but since it had no turbine generator, no electricity was produced. The energy produced was released in the form of steam.
In 1955 a turbine-generator was added to BORAX-II and testing was done to demonstrate that turbine contamination would not be a significant problem in BWR's. This testing was continued with BORAX-III.