Nuclear reactor Institute Jožef Stefan – TRIGA

The Jožef Stefan nuclear reactor, designed by Oton Jugovec in 1961, was one of the first nuclear installations in Yugoslavia.
With its dynamic sequential composition of buildings, it represents a unique contrast to the endless horizon of the Sava landscape in which it lies. The unusual form of the reactor’s geometrically deformed cube symbolically represents the nuclear process or the mushroom as a result of a nuclear explosion. The inverted and minimalist interior volume is covered by a concrete dome made of broken segments, and in the middle the reactor itself grows from a thick concrete base. Its extended floor plan with an administrative building and a water tower later added a propulsion facility and a physics branch on the north side, and a chemistry tract on the south side.
The entire architectural design of the reactor was adapted to the needs of research and educational activities and was important for the development of nuclear technology in Yugoslavia in the 20th century.