The CANDU System:A Canadian Achievement

Adam McLean

January, 2002

Outline of Presentation

• What does CANDU mean?• What sets the CANDU apart?• What effect has CANDU had on Canada?

– The technological achievements– The economic impact– The environmental impact– The medical impact

• How does the CANDU compare?– At home and around the world

• The future of CANDU• Closing

What Does CANDU Mean?

• CANadian– designed, engineered and built in Canada by Canadian engineers

and scientists– history of success with nuclear for peaceful purposes

» ZEEP reactor - first nuclear pile to operate outside the US, September 5, 1945

» NRX - first large scale (40MWt) research reactor in the world, operated for 44 years in Chalk River

» NRU - source of 85% of world’s supply of medical isotopes, sole testbed for CANDU fuel, operating since 1957

» NPD - prototype Canadian power reactor operated from 1962 -1987

» Douglas Point - evolutionary CANDU design 10x the power of NPD

» Led to construction of first 4 Pickering Units 1971 - 1973

Chalk River Laboratories NRU Reactor

What Does CANDU Mean (cont)?

• Deuterium– isotope of Hydrogen containing one proton and one neutron– replaces the H atom in H2O to make D2O or Heavy Water– 10% heavier than ordinary water– occurs in natural water 1 part in 7000– has a moderating ratio 80 times higher than ordinary water– separated by a gas-bubbled hydrogen sulfide exchange

tower or by electrolytic hydrogen catalyst– 1000 tonnes on loan to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

www.sno.phy.queensu.ca

• Uranium– CANDU uses natural uranium - 0.7% fissionable (useful) fuel– no enrichment required to higher levels– Canada has over 353,000 tonnes of reserves and 1/4 of world

production (85% exported)

What Sets the CANDU Apart?

• Natural Uranium fuel and Heavy Water moderator– only reactor system in which no fuel enrichment required– highest neutron economy of all commercial reactor systems

• Online, full power refueling– only economic, proven safe reactor system with this capability– extremely high capability factors possible

• Fuel cycle flexibility– CANDU’s can run with natU, SEU, Spent PWR fuel (DUPIC,

OREOX process), recovered Uranium from LWR fuel, MOX, actinide matrix fuel, Th/U233 near breeder cycle

– unparalleled in other reactor systems

• Safest reactor design in the world– 2 shutdown systems + ECC + large heat sink+ full containment

+ vacuum building = Defence In Depth

CANDU reactor face

Fueling machine mock-up

Construction of Darlington NGS

What Effect Has CANDU Had on Canada?• since 1952, Canada has invested $5B in nuclear

power R&D• in the same time, the nuclear industry has

contributed at least $40B to the Canadian GNP and saved ~$20B in foreign exchange by using uranium instead of coal

• $4B in energy production per year• $1B in uranium sales exports per year• currently employs 26,000 people directly and a

further 10,000 indirectly• over 150 companies involved in Canadian nuclear• 1 reactor sale abroad ~ $1,485,000,000 (’00 CAN)

What Effect Has CANDU Had on Canada?• Technological Effect

– Brain Gain! throughout 48 year history of nuclear industry– major advancements and contributions in mining, nuclear

engineering, evolutionary nuclear design, nuclear safety, computer simulation, robotics, risk assessment, nuclear waste storage, radiation therapy, turn-key project management, etc.

What Effect Has CANDU Had on Canada?• Environmental Effect

– OPG’s reactors alone avoids 55 million tonnes of CO2 emission per year (>10% of Canada’s 500 million tonne total) or the same as 24 million automobiles

– without nuclear, Ontario’s greenhouse gas emission from power production would double

– energy from one CANDU fuel bundle would require 400 tonnes of coal or 270,000 litres of oil or 300,000 cubic metres of natural gas

Cigar Lake mine

Comparison of total Greenhouse Gas emission from electricity production chains.Source: IAEA, 2001, Bulletin 422, page 21

What Effect Has CANDU Had on Canada?• Medical Effect

– Canada is the world leader in radiation protection.– Radiation Safety Institute in Toronto is the only one like it in the world.– An astounding 40 to 50,000 nuclear medicine procedures are carried

out around the world each day. Of these, over 75% use technetium-99m, a versatile isotope that emits the ideal energy for high-resolution diagnostic imaging. Technetium-99m lends itself to incorporation in several radiopharmaceuticals and its very short half-life means minimal risk to the patient.

– Canada pioneered the Cobalt-60 cancer therapy technology that is standard medical practice throughout the world. Currently, about 65 per cent of the world's Cobalt-60 is produced in Canada. The medical-use Cobalt-60 is produced in the NRU research reactor at Chalk River Laboratories, while industrial-use Cobalt-60 is produced in selected CANDU power reactors.

– The planned MAPLE facility will produce molybdenum-99, which decays into technetium-99m - the isotope most widely used in hospitals and clinics to diagnose many illnesses including cancer and heart disease. The facilities will also produce xenon-133, iodine-131 and iodine-125.

Pharmaceutical Radiochemicals– Carbon-14 Drug metabolization testing – Chromium-51 Kidney, red blood cells– Cobalt-57 Organ size and location, anemia, malabsorption– Gallium-67 Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma, carcinomas– Iodine-123 Thyroid, brain, kidney, urinary tract– Iodine-125 Bone density, prostate cancer, node localization– Iodine-131 Cancer, thyroid, Graves disease, goiter– Indium-111 Blood cell labeling and detection– Molybdenum-99 All organs, cancers– Nickel-63 Detectors, thickness gauges, light sensors– Palladium-103 Prostate cancer– Phosphorus-32 Therapeutics, molecular biology, genetics– Strontium-82 PET agent in heart imaging– Technetium-99m Thyroid, salivary, brain, bone, liver, cardiac, eye– Thallium-201 Heart disease, muscle, vascular, brain, thyroid– Xenon-133 Brain, lung, heart, intestinal, muscle blood flow– Yttrium-90 Tumor destruction

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Cobalt Therapy Machine

– First commercial radiation therapy machine to treat cancer invented in Canada in 1951, first used in London Ontario

– Over 2500 Cobalt Therapy (CT) units are used worldwide, providing over 25,000,000 – Commonly sterilized materials with radiation include blood, medical equipment and utensils,

milk, fruit, poultry, canned food, and now mail!– Radioisotopes are also used to detect structural flaws in bridges, jet engines, pipe welds and

holding tanks and for quality control to detect the thickness of paper, plastic, steel and concrete.– Gas chromatographs are now used at major airports to detect explosives and drugs through the

use of radioisotopes.

Computed Tomography (CT)

Mail and medical sterilization system

Food irradiation system

Radiation and health monitoring in the

nuclear industry and at home

How Does the CANDU Perform?

• In 1980s, as many as 8 of the top 10 reactors were CANDU (including all PWRs, BWR’s, GCR’s, RBMK’s)

• In 1999, only 3 of the top 20 were CANDU’s• Lifetime performance rates CANDU 6’s 11% higher in

rated capacity factor that next highest PWR’s (at 82%)• World-wide there are CANDU’s in:

– Argentina (1 named Embalse - the first CANDU to use SEU)– Canada (14 in use, 8 layed up)– China (2 under construction at Qinshan)– India (2 CANDU’s named RAPS operating, 9 ‘clone’ reactors also)– Pakistan (1 reactor named Kanupp)– Romania (1 reactor operating, 4 under construction at Cernavoda)– South Korea (4 reactors operating at Wolsong)

The Future of CANDU

• Pickering A, B ~ 2010• Bruce A (2 units), B - 2018• Darlington - 2020 - 2025+• 2 new MAPLE type isotope production reactors are

now running in Chalk River (MMIR 1-2)• The CNF (Canadian Neutron Facility) is currently

proposed to replace the research functions of NRU• CANDU NG sales to Britain very likely by 2005• Additional sales to Vietnam, China, Turkey?• CANDU X program very strong at AECL• Deep geological disposal awaiting approval

MAPLE reactor Canada’s Deep Geological Waste Concept

In Closing

• We should be very proud of the CANDU system• Developed domestically by a small group of

dedicated Canadian researchers and visionaries• Most flexible, most advanced, safest power

reactor available worldwide

• Thank you for your time!