Forschungsreaktor 2 (FR2)

Forschungsreaktor 2 (FR2) (Research Reactor 2) was the second nuclear reactor built in and by Germany after restrictions on nuclear research imposed as a result of the Second World War were lifted in 1955. Construction began in 1957 in Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen/BW. The organization charged with the project evolved into the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK) (Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre), which in turn evolved into the present day Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Forschungsreaktor 2 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

FR2 started up on December 12, 1962, and ceased operation in December 1981.[1] As of 2005, the reactor core is contained, and the auxiliary buildings have been demolished or are being used for non-nuclear research activities, mostly in micro process engineering, which uses manufacturing technologies that originated from mechanical microstructuring processes that had been developed in the context of nuclear technologies (isotope separation).