1 GWt - not bad for a 500 kWt TRIGA (assuming that it wasn't the steady state 14MW TRIGA).
It is a 14MW one indeed , though modified slightly to use LEU back in the 90's . If I remember right it could do up to 4 GWt pulses , though I've never seen it at that power level. We also had a 250KW one at another research lab closer to me , but they closed it down a few years ago.
There's a funny story about that one. My teacher used to work there from 1975 all the way to the early 90's . And between the usual tasks , he and his team had three more assemblies built on site - no licence , no anything. they even did the control instrumentation on site. From what he told me they were 10 KWt air-cooled assemblies.
They asked for the authorizations to build another reactor building on the premises , and when they didn't get the construction papers they just... build a couple of rooms inside one of the larger metal barracks they had around there.
In the end they ran them for a couple of years until the guys from Austria came to inspect something and ... well they pretty much freaked out when they saw not one but 4 fully functional - quite glowy after all those years of testing - assembly inside a building inside a barrack
Needless to say , they did decommission them afterwards
Interesting! You're lucky to have a place where you can do higher courses in nuclear engineering. Here in Australia, we have to go overseas (typically to the US) - and so we only have a small number of nuclear qualified engineers.....
It's not overflowing with nuclear engineers here either - back when I started college we were 120 in the class. Four years later 32 graduated , out of which only 5 of them with grades above 8/10 .Then I started my master degree at the same uni ( nuclear security , radioprotection and advanced reactor design) and out of 19 only 4 graduated. That makes what , 3% ?
Oh and right now I only know of two others that are working for their EngD in the field.
There's a reason for that since research work is paid less than sweeping streets ( not joking , a street sweeper get 350-400 euro/month while most salaries in research are 300-350) . Though I am waiting for the other two units to be commissioned at our CANDU plant - 1400 job offers when that happens
