THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGH-TEMPERATURE R EACTOR

In the future even more than in the past, nuclear power will be indisp ensable in the present industrialized countries and in those still und er development. The safe, nonpolluting, and economic supply of energy to mankind in the future includes so many different problems that the technology of the high-temperature reactor at its present level of dev elopment, and with the possibilities it offers above and beyond those provided by other, established, technologies, does not have to mark th e end of some old line of development, but rather should be seen as th e starting point of a development offering promise for the future. It is for this reason that the extensive, valuable knowledge and experien ce accumulated in the construction, operation, and decommissioning of the AVR and THTR plants, the development of the HTR module and other v ariants and, last, but not least, the valuable results of projects suc h as PNP, NFE, and HHT, must be preserved at the research centers and with former operators and vendors, and must be passed on to young nucl ear engineers all over the world. Professor Rudolf Schulten worked for this idea both as a university teacher and as a pioneer for safe nucl ear technology. Schulten, retired Professor of Reactor Technology at t he Aachen Technical University and former Director at the Institute fo r Reactor Development of the Julich (Nuclear) Research Center (KFA), d ied on April 27, 1996 at the age of 72.