Construction of the KNK II Facility.

After almost two and a half years of conversion work the 20 MWe KNK II Experimental Nuclear Power Station was started up again on October 10, 1977 at the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center. KNK II is the most important facility in German fast breeder reactor development. It represents the first fast sodium cooled reactor available in the Federal Republic as a test bed for practical tests of fast breeder fuel and for tests under reactor conditions of specific breeder reactor components. The Compact Sodium Cooled Nuclear Reactor built by INTERATOM had been operated with a thermal core as KNK I between 1971 and mid-1974, mainly serving to prove that the technology of sodium cooling was managed even on a large technical scale.