Nuclear Technology In Canada
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Nuclear industry in Canada is an active business and research sector, producing about 15% of its electricity in
nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...
s of domestic design. Canada is the world's largest exporter of
uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...
, and has the world's second largest proven reserves. Canada also exports
nuclear technology Nuclear technology is technology that involves the nuclear reactions of atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear reactors, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons. It is also used, among other things, in s ...
within the terms of the
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperatio ...
, to which it is a signatory, and is the world's largest producer of radioactive medical isotopes.


History


Nuclear technology

The Nuclear industry (as distinct from the uranium industry) in Canada dates back to 1942 when a joint British-Canadian laboratory was set up in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, under the administration of the
National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...
, to develop a design for a heavy-water nuclear reactor. This reactor was called National Research Experimental and would be the most powerful
research reactor Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritim ...
in the world when completed. In the meantime, in 1944, approval was given to proceed with the construction of the smaller ZEEP (Zero Energy Experimental Pile) test reactor at
Chalk River Chalk River (2016 population: 1029) is a community located within the town of Laurentian Hills in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Upper Ottawa Valley along Highway 17 (Ontario), Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway), inland ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
and on September 5, 1945, at 3:45 p.m., the 10 Watt ZEEP successfully achieved the first self-sustained nuclear reaction outside the United States. ZEEP operated for 25 years as a key research facility. The
Teck Cominco smelter The Teck Cominco smelter, also known as the Teck Cominco Lead-Zinc Smelter, Cominco Smelter, and Trail smelter located in Trail, British Columbia, Canada, is the largest integrated lead-zinc smelter of its kind in the world. It is situated approx ...
in
Trail, British Columbia Trail is a city in the western Kootenays region of the British Columbia Interior, Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Lan ...
produced heavy water for the American
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...
from 1942 to 1956. In 1946, Montreal Laboratory was closed, and the work continued at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories. Building partly on the experimental data obtained from ZEEP, the National Research Experimental (NRX)—a
natural uranium Natural uranium (NU or Unat) is uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.711% uranium-235, 99.284% uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight (0.0055%). Approximately 2.2% of its radioactivity comes from ura ...
,
heavy water Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...
moderated research reactor—started up on July 22, 1947. It operated for 43 years, producing
radioisotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...
s, undertaking fuels and materials development work for CANDU reactors, and providing
neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...
s for physics experiments. It was eventually joined in 1957 by the larger 200 megawatt (MW)
National Research Universal reactor The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was a 135 MW nuclear research reactor built in the Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario, one of Canada’s national science facilities. It was a multipurpose science facility that served three main roles. ...
(NRU). In 1952, the Canadian Government formed AECL, a Crown corporation with the mandate to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy. A partnership was formed between AECL,
Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity ge ...
and Canadian General Electric to build Canada's first nuclear power plant, called NPD for Nuclear Power Demonstration. The 20 MWe Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) started operation in 1962 and successfully demonstrated the unique concepts of on-power refuelling using natural uranium fuel, and heavy water moderator and coolant. These defining features formed the basis of a successful fleet of
CANDU The CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide (heavy water) neutron moderator, moderator and its use of (originally, natural ...
power reactors (CANDU is an acronym for CANada Deuterium Uranium) built and operated in Canada and elsewhere. In the late 1960s (1967–1970), Canada also developed an experimental ''miniature'' nuclear reactor named
SLOWPOKE The SLOWPOKE (acronym for Safe LOW-POwer Kritical Experiment) is a family of low-energy, swimming pool reactor, tank-in-pool type nuclear research reactors designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) beginning in the late 1960s. John W. H ...
(acronym for Safe Low-Power Kritical Experiment). The first prototype was built at Chalk River and many SLOWPOKEs were subsequently built, mainly for research. This reactor design is extremely safe and requires almost no maintenance (it is even licensed to ''operate unattended overnight''); it can run for more than 20 years before the nuclear fuel needs replacement. There was an attempt at commercializing the reactor, as it could be used in remote areas or vehicles (research stations, electric-diesel submarines). Then, China entered the market with its SLOWPOKE-like reactor and thus, the project lost its commercial potential. Many SLOWPOKEs are still in use in Canada; there is one running at
École Polytechnique de Montréal École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...
, for instance.


Radioisotopes

The existence of Canada's early nuclear program, and in particular the powerful NRX research reactor, nurtured a medical isotope and nuclear medicine R&D community at several locations across the country. Canada pioneered the
cobalt-60 Cobalt-60 (Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotop ...
cancer therapy technology that became standard medical practice throughout the world (the first cobalt-60 cancer therapy was administered at the Royal Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario on October 27, 1951), and has also been involved in the development of accelerator-based cancer therapy technology.


Framework

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...
oversees nuclear power R&D and regulation in Canada, with responsibility for the crown corporation
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL, Énergie atomique du Canada limitée, EACL) is a Canadian Crown corporation and the largest nuclear science and technology laboratory in Canada. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in th ...
(AECL) and the regulatory agency, the
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC; ) is the federal regulator of nuclear power and materials in Canada. Mandate and history Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was established under the 1997 '' Nuclear Safety and Control Act'' with a ma ...
(CNSC). AECL's commercial operations include reactor development, design and construction of
CANDU The CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide (heavy water) neutron moderator, moderator and its use of (originally, natural ...
nuclear reactors, and provision of reactor services and technical support to CANDU reactors worldwide.


Power generation

The province of
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
dominates Canada's nuclear power industry, containing most of the country's nuclear power generating capacity. Ontario has 16 operating reactors providing about 50% of the province's electricity, plus two reactors undergoing refurbishment.
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
also has one reactor. Overall, nuclear power provides about 15% of Canada's electricity. The industry employs about 21,000 people directly and 10,000 indirectly. There has been renewed interest in nuclear energy, spurred by increasing demand (particularly within Ontario), and the desire to comply with Canada's Kyoto Agreement obligations, although Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in December 2012. (Canada was committed to cutting its greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012, but in 2009 emissions were 17% higher than in 1990. The Harper government prioritized
oil sands Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. They are either loose sands, or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with bitumen (a dense and extremely viscous ...
development in Alberta, and deprioritized improving the environment.) []. The Government of Ontario proposed plans in 2004 to build several new nuclear reactors in the province. The leading candidate is AECL's Advanced CANDU Reactor. Environmental assessments are currently underway for one site next to
Bruce Power Bruce Power Limited Partnership is a Canadian business partnership composed of several corporations. It exists (as of 2015) as a partnership between TC Energy (31.6%), BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust (61.4%), the Power Workers Union (4%) an ...
's
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. It occupies 932 ha (2300 acres) of land. The facility derives its name from Bruce Township, Ontario, Bruce Township, the ...
in Tiverton and another next to
Ontario Power Generation Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation and "government business enterprise" that is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is w ...
's
Darlington Nuclear Generating Station Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Bowmanville, Ontario. It is a large nuclear facility comprising four CANDU reactor, CANDU nuclear reactors with a total outpu ...
. Bruce Power has applied for a license to generate nuclear power at Cardinal Lake in the province of Alberta.


Medical radioisotopes

About 85% of the world's medical and industrial
cobalt-60 Cobalt-60 (Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotop ...
is produced in Canada. The medical-use cobalt-60 is produced in the NRU research reactor at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories, while industrial-use cobalt-60 is produced in selected CANDU power reactors (in these units some adjuster rods are made of cobalt-59 for this purpose). Furthermore, over half the cobalt-60 therapy machines and medical sterilizers in the world were built in Canada, treating over half a million patients yearly. In addition to cobalt-60, MDS Nordion also produces radioisotopes that are essential in diagnostic therapy. Some can be mixed chemically with other substances and injected into the body to allow physicians to “see” into the body, even the brain, lungs and organs that hitherto were inaccessible. Not only have these diagnostic techniques eliminated the need for much exploratory surgery, they have provided physicians with diagnostic capabilities that would otherwise have been impossible. Mild irradiation is also used to sterilize many medical supplies and some pharmaceuticals. Canada was also a pioneer in the production of medical isotopes, and today is the world's biggest supplier of Molybdenum-99, the "workhorse" and most commonly used isotope in nuclear medicine. This isotope is generated in the NRU reactor; this is then shipped to MDS Nordion, a global supplier of radiopharmaceuticals based in Kanata, Ontario (near Ottawa). There are more than 4000 Mo-99 treatments daily in Canada, and 40,000 daily in the US. Canada produces about 30-40% of the global supply of
molybdenum-99 Molybdenum (42Mo) has 39 known isotopes, ranging in atomic mass from 81 to 119, as well as four metastable nuclear isomers. Seven isotopes occur naturally, with atomic masses of 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, and 100. All unstable isotopes of molybdenum ...
.


Uranium production

Canada is the world's largest producer of uranium with about one third of world production coming from
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
mines. There are two major players in the
uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
sector.
Cameco Cameco Corporation (formerly Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation) is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18 ...
operates the McArthur River mine, which started production at the end of 1999. Its ore is milled at Key Lake, which once contributed 15% of world uranium production but is now mined out. Its other former mainstay is
Rabbit Lake mine Rabbit Lake is the second largest uranium milling facility in the western world, and is the longest-operating uranium production facility in Saskatchewan. The facility is located approximately 800 km north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on the n ...
, which still has some reserves at Eagle Point mine, where mining resumed in mid-2002 after a three-year break. An underground reserve replacement program is adding to reserves faster than they are being mined. Areva Resources Canada operates the
McClean Lake mine The McClean Lake mine is a uranium mine and milling operation located west of Wollaston Lake, about 700 kilometres north of Saskatoon, in the Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan, Canada. The McClean ore body was discovered in 1979, followed b ...
, which started production in mid-1999. Its
Cluff Lake mine Cluff Lake mine is decommissioned former uranium mine located in northern Saskatchewan, located 30 km east of the provincial border with Alberta and approximately 75 kilometres south of Lake Athabasca. The mine and mill were owned and operated by ...
has now closed, and is being decommissioned. In December 2004, the Cigar Lake Joint Venture (AREVA Resources Canada 37.1%, Cameco Corporation 50.025%, Idemitsu Uranium Exploration Canada Ltd. 7.875%, and TEPCO Resources 5%) partners agreed to proceed with development of the Cigar Lake uranium mine -the second largest known high-grade uranium deposit in the world, after McArthur River. With federal and provincial approvals in place, full construction began in January 2005. All of Canada's uranium production now comes from the high-grade unconformity-type uranium deposits of the
Athabasca Basin The Athabasca Basin is a region in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. It is best known as the world's leading source of high-grade uranium and currently supplies about 20% of the world's uranium. The basin i ...
of northern Saskatchewan, such as Rabbit Lake, McClean Lake, McArthur River, and Cigar Lake. The uranium industry invested at least CDN $3.5 billion during the 20th century, with capital investment in mines of CDN $2.5 billion, and exploration and predevelopment expenditures exceeding CDN $1 billion. Adjusting for inflation, there have been three investment booms. The first small one came with the initial developments in the Beaverlodge area in the 1950s. The second and largest boom was in the 1970s, with the opening of the Cluff and Rabbit lake mines, and the third was in the 1990s with the development of the higher grade ores on the east side.


Nuclear waste management

Radioactive waste in Canada can be grouped into three broad categories: nuclear fuel waste, low-level radioactive waste, and uranium mill tailings. The most recent inventory of these wastes is provided in the LLRWMO 2004 report. At the end of 2003, the total amount of nuclear fuel waste was 6,800 m3. Canada's
used nuclear fuel Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and ...
is now safely stored at licensed facilities at the reactor sites. On site storage options are expected to perform well over the near term; however, existing reactor sites were not chosen for their suitability as permanent storage sites. Furthermore, the communities hosting the nuclear reactors have a reasonable expectation that used nuclear fuel will eventually be moved. In 2002 the Government of Canada passed the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act, requiring the owners of used nuclear fuel to create the Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organisation (NWMO). This Act required that the NWMO engage citizens, specialists, stakeholders and the Aboriginal peoples in research and dialogue to assess the options for long-term management of this material. In 2005, the NWMO recommended "Adaptive Phased Management" as the foundation for managing the risks and uncertainties that are inherent in the very long time frames over which used nuclear fuel must be managed. In 2007, the Government of Canada approved this approach, and authorized NWMO to begin implementation.Natural Resources Canada News Room - News Release 2007-06-14
In summary the program commits Canada to the first steps to manage the used nuclear fuel it has created. It espouses sequential and collaborative decision-making to provide flexibility to adapt to experience and technical change. It aims to provide a viable, safe and secure long-term storage solution, with the potential of retrieving used fuel until and if and when a decision is made to seal the facility permanently. It is meant to provide the capacity to transfer responsibility from one generation to the next. The key technical element of the approach is the ultimate centralized containment and isolation of the used fuel and other high level waste in a
deep geological repository A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment, typically 200–1,000 m below the surface of the earth. It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals ...
in a suitable rock formation, such as the crystalline rock of the
Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield ( ), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), th ...
or
Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...
sedimentary rock.


See also

*
List of Canadian nuclear facilities A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* Canadian Nuclear Association *
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL, Énergie atomique du Canada limitée, EACL) is a Canadian Crown corporation and the largest nuclear science and technology laboratory in Canada. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in th ...
*
Canada and weapons of mass destruction Canada has never maintained or possessed their own weapons of mass destruction. Canada participated in NATO’s nuclear mission between 1963 and 1984, which included the hosting of US nuclear weapons on its soil. Canada ratified the Nuclear Non- ...
* Energy Alberta Corporation * Pembina Institute * Anti-nuclear movement in Canada *
Science and technology in Canada Science and technology in Canada consists of three distinct but closely related phenomena: * the diffusion of technology in Canada * scientific research in Canada * innovation, invention and industrial research in Canada In 2019, Canada spent ...


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


The Canadian Nuclear FAQ

The Canadian Nuclear Society

The Society for the Preservation of Canada's Nuclear Heritage, Inc.

Summary of the Nuclear Waste Management's Organizations findings on dealing with Canada's nuclear waste

"Entering the Nuclear Age" (Legion Magazine, Sept/Oct 2003)

"Economic Impact of the Nuclear Industry in Canada" (Canadian Energy Research Institute, 2003)

"Nuclear Power in Canada: An Examination of Risks, Impacts and Sustainability" (Pembina Institute, 2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuclear Industry In Canada Nuclear technology in Canada Industry in Canada