Authority Ni 7 I 18 g IL _llg_ag sacs Mercer 2 Copy Neg t- 1 Intelligence InfOrmation Brief No 236 January h 1960 BUREAU UFINTELUGENBE AND RESEARCH YUGOSLAVIA NUCLEAR REACTOR GOES INTO OPERETION Yugoslavia s nuclear program passed an important milestone the end of 1959 with the coming into operation of a research reactor On December 28 Tito Vice Presidents Kardelj and Rankovic and delegations from the USSR and the International Atomic Energy Agency took part in elaborate ceremonies marking its completion The Yugoslavs did the construction work and installation but the blueprints hardware heavy water and nuclear fuel were bought from the USSR While western countries supplied only subsidiary equipment for the new reactor they hare played a large role in helping Yugoslavia develop its nuclear pgegram The Yugoslavs have devoted a large amount of money and energy to this pregram and have made impressive progress Their goals lie mainly'in the economic medical and research fields but the prestige factor has undoubtedly intensified their drive Characteristics of New Reactor The newly commissioned reactor is located at the Boris Kidric Institute of Nuclear Research at Vince about 10 miles from Belgrade and within sight of the Danube When in full operation it will have a normal capacity of 6 5 megawatts MW and 10 MW under forced power The reactor is of the tank type using 2 percent enriched uranium as fuel and heavy water as a moderator coolant Danube water is also used fer certain cooling operations The critical mass of the reactor is 285 DELLADDH 111 11 Authority N5 7 In -21 kilograms cf necIeer fuelg'with 3h ikilegrame needed far'fvll operati na The master cost betwe e e $13 $15 1hilli n or whie soviet men t and fuel We value e d $1 506 000 It will be use in training Y gosleviais nuclear soientiete and techniciane and willipreduceh ieetopee for use in and various fields of research Role Yugoslavia's negotiations with the United States on the constructien of a US nuclear reactor in YugOslaVia were unsuccessful main1y_beceuee the Yugoslavs requed to agree to the Safeguarding conditions including inepection that were required by the-US and the willingness to supply nuclear fuel only on a loan beSis The first proposal to reactor was put forth during the Khrushchev Bulgenin visit to Belgrade in mid 1955 With Khrushchev s at rapprochement with Belgrade as background YugoslaV Soviet agreemehte were signed in late-1955 and- the first half of 1956 on scientific a d technical cooperation 1h the nuclear field and on the type of reactOr the USSR would supply t Reperte ly3 heme bargaining went into the negotiations over price The Yugosla e made clear that w ile they wanted the Soviet reactor they wanted it without strings an at werldumarket priceSe To them the purchase was strictly a buSineSSAtraneaction ' The USSR finelky agreed 60 supply the reactor and fuel for with payment in trade The termS of trede the period of payment and the intereet rate if amy ' are5not known Binge Genetruction of the reactor begen in late 1956 the umber of Soviet te hnioiane and engineers at Vince has varied from to 20 Aleo several YEgeelav scientists have been trained in the USSR in reaCtor epeeation5-mai tenance of Cantrels eere ef pumps etc Thef uere a num er of repar e in eeriy 1958 that_deliveries of a d uranium were runnihg eonSiderably behind schedule 1 Details on the reactOr were obtained from peblielaed Yugoslav material and statemEHts by western scientis s wh0 haVe Visited Vince over ee-last two years Gommention other parts of the Yugeslannucleaf'prOgrem came from qualified obserVere whose statemahts Were supper ee by e e or mere independent sourees -3- with Yugoslav officials privately contending that the delay resulted from the deterioration in YugoslavbSoviet relations during that period There was no sign however that the USSR ever tried to stop shipments altogether The delay in Soviet shipments was one of the principal reasons why the 6 1O MW'reactor was put into operation in late 1959 instead of in late 1957 or early 1958 as originally scheduled Another main cause of delay was the accident in October 1958 involving Vince s zero-pomer exponential pile ThistYugoslavhbuilt pile put into operation in May 1958 went out of control and inflicted severe radiation burns on six attending technicians All six were flown to Paris where one died While the zerowpower pile is separated from the large reactor the Yugoslavs arranged to use the some heavy water in both units to save money and the accident necessitated a thorough study to see if the water had been contaminated Moreover the Yugoslavs shocked and embarrassed by the accident refurbished and strengthened safety precautions in all eh'nuclear installations and generally reviewed their methods Before moving ahead with the completion of their big reactor western Assistance thile Western comtries including the as had little to do with the 6 5-10 MW reactor they have played an important role in YugOslavia's nuclear energy program Yugoslav scientists and engineers have Studied at Oak Ridge and the Argonne National Laboratories in the US as well as at various US universities Others have studied at Harwell in the UK and in various French German Scandinavian and Belgian institutes Along with several types of isotopes Western countries have Supplied Yugoslavia'with a large betatron accelerators and numerous other pieces of equipment necessary for advanced nuclear research In early 1959 Yugoslav officials told an American businessman from a firm selling equipment for nuclear installations that they wanted to buy additional nuclear reactors for training purposes and indicated that Yugoslavia would be willing to sign a bilateral agreement with the US for Such reactors if the required inspections were made by the International Atomic Energy'Agency and not by the US Atomic Energy Commission Yugoslavia s Nuclear Program and Goals For a small and still underdeveloped country Yugoslavia has spent a large amount of money and energy-on its nuclear program Reportedly 320 $25 million had gone into the program by the and of 1959 The SECRET Morons Authoritym - LL ocuntry s three-research institutes in Zagreb and Josef Stefan in Ijuhljana are well supplied with equipment built in Yugoslavia or purchased abroad mainly in the West They have a highly developed training program for nuclear scientists and techniCiahs at home and in the West They have prospected for and her found domestic sources of uraniumeproducing ore Yugoslavia's immediate goals are in research training and the production of 130t0pes Its long range goals tentatively set seen in a 10-15 year plan include such grandiose projects as nuclear posered merchant ships and power plants The Yugoslavs say that their reserves of lignite will run out in about 30 years 'and at that time their hydrou electric resources will have reached optimum use They plan to have their first experimental nuclear power plant in operation in the early 1970 s They_edmit however that the production of nuclear-powered ships is beyond their reach for the foreseeable future Along with these economic goals the Yugoslavs have prestige reasons for pushing ahead with their nuclear pragram - For one thing- they are keeping-up with the Eastern European Joneses While their resetor cane into operation after those in severa1 Eastern European countries and Communist China they claim that theirs is bigger and better The Yugoslav roaster is in fact bigger than those now in operation in Eastern Ehrope and about the same as the one in Communist Shines More important to Yugoslavia's leaders is the prestige effect on underdeveloped and uncommitted countries of having a well developed nuclear program They have steadily increased their efforts to play a leading part-in the nonhloc world and-with the production of isotopes at Yogoslavie's new reactor they will be able to show their advanced- position by giving nuclear assistance to the underdeveloped countries of Africa and Asia Further the Yugoslave have used their position in the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry forward their self- appointed role of spokesmen for the underdeveloped world _Pointing to their own acceptance of stringless nuclear assistance from west and East as an example the YUgoslavs have argued on every possible occasion that the Agency's main function is to promote this type of assistance to underdeveloped countries RD Doe seems Moses