Dr. Jeremy Whitlock

SPLITTING ATOMS,CANADIAN STYLE

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories(Chalk River, Ontario)

Chalk River Laboratories

CHALK RIVER LABS

GENERATOR

TRANSFORMER

ELECTRICALGRID

WATER

STEAM

WINDTURBINE

HOW DO WE MAKE ELECTRICITY?

“Hydro”“Wind”“Fossil”“Nuclear”

“THERMAL POWER STATIONS”

“Fossil”“Nuclear”

Fossil 13%

Nuclear 59%

Nuclear 16%

Hydro 59%

Fossil 23%

CanadaOntario

Where does our electricity come from?

Hydro 24%

Wind 2%Wind

4%

Nuclear energy

“CANDU”: Canada Deuterium Uranium“CANDU”: Canada Deuterium Uranium

“One of Canada’s top ten engineering achievements of the past century”

Canadian engineering centennial, 1987(EIC, CCPE, ACEC)

(Other nine: CPR railway, St. Lawrence seaway, Polymer Corp. synthetic rubber,oil sands development, Hydro Quebec HV transmission system, Beaver aircraftAlouette satellite, Bombardier snowmobile, trans-Canada telephone network)

Let’s look under the hood …

Nuclearfission

happens here

Nuclear fission “splitting the atom”

50,000 atoms would fit across even the thinnest human hair

Everything is made of billions

of atoms:

nucleus (> 99% mass)

protons neutrons

Inside the nucleus: PROTONS and NEUTRONS

1 uraniumatom

2 “fission products”

1 neutron

2 or 3 moreneutrons

Heat !

Okay, let’s go fission!

BUT… first we need to slow those neutrons down!

Uranium

Water (lots of hydrogen atoms)

SlowNeutrons

FastNeutrons

Speed:about 1 km/s

Speed:about 10,000 km/s(~ 10% speed of light)

Let’s build a nuclear reactor!

HEAVY WATER (moderator)

HEAVY WATER (coolant)URANIUMFUEL

CONTROL RODS

HEAVY WATER (moderator)

HEAVY WATER (coolant)URANIUMFUEL

Refuelingwithout

shutting down

Fueling machine replaces: • 110 fuel bundles per week• a pair of bundles in 2½ hrs

STEAMGENERATOR

“Very Heavy Lift” (VHL) mobile crane

350 tonne steam generator

Darlington station

CANDUfuel bundle

50 cm

UO2 Fuel Pellets

Fuel Pellet: 10 of these provide one home’s electricity for a year

“Calandria”

Qinshan, China

Point Lepreau turbine-generator (NB)

CANDU Spent-Fuel On-Site Storage:water-filled bays (short term)

CANDU Spent-Fuel On-Site Storage:Modular above-ground air-cooled concrete bunkers (long term)

Long-Term Management:“Adaptive Phased Management”

Mining (Saskatchewan) Milling (Saskatchewan) Refining (Blind River)

Short-term Storage Electricity Generation (40-60 years) Conversion (Port Hope)

Medium-term Storage Long-term Management

500 m

Pickering, Ontario(1971-73, 1983-86) Darlington, Ontario (1990-93)

Bruce, Ontario(1977-79, 1985-87)

Pt. Lepreau, New Brunswick(1983)

Gentilly 1 and 2, Quebec(1971, 1983)

Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD), Ontario (1962)

CANDUin

Canada Douglas Point, Ontario (1966)

CANDUaround

the world

Wolsong, South Korea(1982, 1997-99)

Embalse, Argentina (1984)

Cernavoda, Romania(1996, 2006, …?)

Rajasthan, India(1973, 1982)

Kanupp, Pakistan (1972)

Qinshan, China(2002-03)

1 CANDUfuel bundle

(50 cm long, 23 kg)

=

Total electricity needs of a family for

100 years

Nuclear Energy doesn’t use much fuel

400 tonnescoal

60,000 galoil

= 10 million ft3

natural gas=

1000 tonnes CO2

1 tonne particulates8 tonnes acid gas

=1 CANDUfuel bundle(50 cm long,

23 kg) 600 tonnes CO2

1 tonne acid gas

Nuclear Energy doesn’t use much fuel

… or generate much waste!

What else can we do with nuclear energy?

Nuclear medicine!

 Using radiation to diagnose diseaseand fight cancer

Chalk River Laboratories

NRU Research Reactor(AECL Chalk River)

Thank you!

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories: www.cnl.ca

“The Canadian Nuclear FAQ”: www.nuclearfaq.ca