Editing MOATA

{{Short description|Nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights, Sydney, Australia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
'''MOATA''' was a 100&nbsp;kW [[Thermal reactor|thermal]] [[Argonaut class reactor]] built at the [[Australian Atomic Energy Commission]] (later [[Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation|ANSTO]]) Research Establishment at [[Lucas Heights, New South Wales|Lucas Heights, Sydney]]. MOATA went [[Critical mass|critical]] at 5:50am on 10 April 1961 and ended operations on 31 May 1995.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/8911|title=Moata reactor|last=Marks|first=A. P.|date=1962|publisher=Australian Atomic Energy Commission|others=Australian Atomic Energy Commission|location=Lucas Heights, N.S.W.}}</ref> MOATA was the first reactor to be decommissioned in Australia in 2009.

== Background ==
The design of the university training reactor MOATA was based on the [[Argonaut class reactor|Argonaut]] research reactor developed by the [[Argonne National Laboratory]] in the mid-1950s, in the [[United States]]. Moata is an Aboriginal word meaning "gentle-fire" or "fire-stick".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ansto.gov.au/AboutANSTO/OPAL/Decommissioningearlierreactors/Moata/index.htm|title=MOATA Research Reactor|publisher=Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426083224/http://www.ansto.gov.au/AboutANSTO/OPAL/Decommissioningearlierreactors/Moata/index.htm|archive-date=26 April 2015|access-date=20 January 2016}}</ref>

MOATA was designed and manufactured by the Advanced Technology Laboratories and first went critical on 10 April 1961.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilson|first=D. J.|date=1983|title=Reduced enrichment fuel and its reactivity effects in the University Training Reactor Moata|url=http://inis.iaea.org/Search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:15010309|language=en}}</ref>

The purpose of the reactor was for training nuclear scientists in [[Reactor operator|reactor operations]] and [[Neutron (physics)|neutron physics]]. However, by the mid-1970s, its official envelope was expanded to include [[Neutron activation analysis|activation analysis]] and [[neutron radiography]], [[Soil test|soil analysis]], and [[Nuclear medicine|nuclear medical research]].

== Decommissioning ==
The reactor was shut down in 1995 as it was no longer possible to economically justify its continued operations. Experimental data on [[nuclear fuel]] and moderator systems was also accumulated during its lifetime. By 2009, the reactor had been completely dismantled and the site is now fully restored. It was the first reactor to be decommissioned in Australia.

In 1995, the [[Spent nuclear fuel|spent fuel]] from the reactor was unloaded and in 2006, it was shipped to the United States under the US [[United States Department of Energy|Department of Energy]]’s Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Finlay|first1=R.|last2=Miller|first2=R.|last3=Dimitrovski|first3=L.|last4=Domingo|first4=X.|last5=Landau|first5=P.|last6=Valery|first6=J.|last7=Laloy|first7=V.|title=Australian research reactors spent fuel management: the path to sustainability|url=http://www.euronuclear.org/meetings/rrfm2017/pdf/fullpapers/RRFM2017-A0104.pdf|journal=Conference Proceedings RRFM2017|language=en|access-date=17 November 2018|archive-date=12 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912190230/http://euronuclear.org/meetings/rrfm2017/pdf/fullpapers/RRFM2017-A0104.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moata}}
[[Category:Argonaut class reactor]]
[[Category:Science and technology in New South Wales]]
[[Category:Defunct nuclear reactors]]


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