It’s been seven and a half years since the NRU reactor at Chalk River shut down, and about 25 years since there was serious talk about a replacement.
But the dream of building a new research reactor may be inching slowly closer towards reality.
In its latest five-year corporate plan, posted last week on the company website, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd says there is an “opportunity” today for a new research reactor, especially with the way the world has changed in the past few years.
“Recent global issues such as the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the fragility of the international supply chain affecting critical materials and life-saving isotopes,” the company says.
“Reliance on foreign research capability makes Canadian nuclear energy dependent on sources outside of Canadian control and influence, a particularly noteworthy risk in an international environment increasingly characterized by protectionism.”
NRU shut down for the final time on March 31, 2018 after more than 60 years of service as Canada’s primary research reactor, as well as generating radioisotopes used in the treatment and diagnosis of millions of people around the world.
There were plans in the late 1990s to replace NRU with a $500 million reactor called the Canadian Neutron Facility (CNF).
Former Industry Minister John Manley told the NRT in the year 2000 that the CNF had been “approved in principle” if the right source of funding could be found, but ultimately plans for the facility ground to a halt.
In its corporate plan, AECL says Canada’s nuclear industry currently relies on a few small reactors across the country, “which alone cannot meet Canadian research needs given their smaller capacity and capabilities”…
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