What
the CANDU represents today is a deliverable partial solution to the nuclear
waste problem produced by the light water reactors. The technology is well understood and avoids
a number of the technical problems of the other reactors of which we have
become far too familiar. Just how do
they ever expect to decommission the Fukushima reactor complex? It makes Three Mile Island look like a
cakewalk. The harsh truth is that these reactors
should never have been built and the CANDU protocol should have been
universally adopted. Its natural default in the face of a disaster is to
lose its coolant and effectively shut down.
However,
we are all experienced with the logic of political and economic decisions.
The
practical reality is that a Full Thorium solution will take a lot of time to
produce. It needs to become a national
project and it needs to be made small as well.
Big is simply a horrible idea. Cost
will rise exponentially otherwise and I note that a private corporation has
woken up to this. Yet it will still take
a lot of time.
Thus
while we all wait, operating CANDUs represent a viable solution and a sound use
of capital.
SNC-Lavalin
seeks to expand nuclear enterprise in China
SNC-Lavalin Inc. is hoping to
revitalize its international nuclear business through an effort with its Chinese
partners to burn reprocessed fuel in a Candu reactor as a way to reduce
radioactive waste.
Officials from Candu Energy Inc. are
leading a Canadian nuclear industry mission to China this week, which will
include a visit Monday to the Qinshan nuclear power station south of Shanghai
where two heavy-water Candu 6 reactors are in operation. Candu Energy is the
former Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and is now wholly owned by SNC-Lavalin.
The Mississauga-based
nuclear vendor has been working with the Chinese operator of the Qinshan plants
to fashion reprocessed fuel from the waste products of competing light-water
reactors. The Candu could, in effect, become the blue box of the nuclear industry,
company executives said in an interview.
“We’re very excited that
this advances the discussion we can have about introducing more Candus into
China,” Jerry Hopwood, the company’s vice-president of marketing and product
development, said.
Candu reactors use heavy
water, which includes a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, both for coolant and
to moderate atomic reactions. Light-water reactors use ordinary water for both
purposes.
Each approach offers
different benefits, but the world market is dominated by light-water reactors,
which require enriched uranium as fuel. In contrast, the heavy-water Candus can
burn natural uranium as well as reprocessed fuel.
Mr. Hopwood said China now
has 21 light-water reactors that produce two streams of energy-rich waste:
spent fuel from the reactor itself and depleted uranium from the enrichment
process. China plans to more than double its number of light-water reactors to
meet the demands of its growing economy.
“Those reactors are going
to produce a lot of waste fuel and China has a plan to recycle all the waste
fuel from its reactor,” Mr. Hopwood said. “We believe there is a very strong
opportunity to sell a significant number of Candu units in China.”
He said the partners have
completed all the development and licensing work, and the Chinese operators
expect to begin running reprocessed fuel in the two Candu reactors at an
industrial level by the end of the year.
The company is also working
with Chinese partners to modify the existing Enhanced Candu model so it will more
efficiently burn the recycled fuel but also run on thorium, an abundant
alternative to uranium that produces less highly radioactive waste. China has
vast reserves of thorium but must import uranium, and develop a thorium-fired
reactor.
As well, Candu Energy is
one of two finalists in the United Kingdom’s competition to select a reactor
design that will eliminate a stockpile of plutonium. “We think this work in
China is paving the way for other options where Candu’s fuel-cycle ability is a
benefit, notably in the U.K.,” Mr. Hopwood said.
The trade delegation will
include Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, Reza Moridi, who is a
nuclear physicist, and several business leaders from the Organization of
Canadian Nuclear Industries, an Ontario-based suppliers’ group that is eager to
land export and service business in the world’s fast growing reactor market.
Critics contend the Candu 6
is an outdated design that lacks safety features included in newer reactors,
and that it is a technology that the international marketplace has largely
rejected since the 1990s.
“So yeah, the industry is
trying to say Candu isn’t dead. Never say die,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a
nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace Canada. “If Candu isn’t dead, it’s a zombie.”
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