Failure of a research reactor in Egypt reported

A representative of the Egyptian Nuclear Organization told a national newspaper that one of the research reactors at the Nuclear Research Center at Inshas suffered a failure and was shut down in April 2010, after a cooling pump broke.

The reactor is the Soviet-built 2 MW RR-1 reactor of the VVR type that became operational in 1961. Reactors of this type can use HEU fuel, but the reactor in Egypt apparently was using LEU-based fuel.