The following three case studies of U. S. research reactor conversions are summarized in this chapter:

• Paul Wilson (University of Wisconsin) reported on the success­ful conversion of the University of Wisconsin research reactor (UWNR) (Wilson, 2011).

• Thomas Newton (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) reported on the status of conversion plans for the Massachusetts Institute of Technol­ogy Reactor (MITR) (Newton, 2011).

• David Cook (Oak Ridge National Laboratory; ORNL) reported on the status of conversion plans for the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) (Cook, 2011).

These reactors are quite different: MITR is planned to be the first research reactor to convert to using high-density uranium-molybdenum (UMo) monolithic LEU fuel and is considered to be a relatively straight­forward conversion for a high-performance reactor. In contrast, HFIR is planned to be the last U. S. domestic reactor to convert to LEU fuel and is likely to pose far greater conversion challenges. Current approaches and plans for converting these reactors are described in the following sections.