Chalk River Laboratories

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Chalk River Laboratories

The Chalk River Laboratories (abbreviation Chalk River Labs or CRL , formerly Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories ) are a Canadian research facility opened in 1944 in Renfrew County on the southern bank of the Ottawa River in Ontario , Canada , about 160 km northwest of Ottawa . The facility derives its name from the nearby Chalk River , a tributary of the Ottawa River on which the laboratories are located. The owner and operator is Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). The small town of Chalk River is also nearby .

use

Originally built for nuclear research after World War II, the laboratories were originally part of the National Research Council of Canada . In 1952 the plant was taken over by AECL. The laboratories consist of 100 buildings, which were built on one square kilometer and employ 2,000 people. The neutrons produced are used for research neutron scattering. On December 2, 1952, the first serious reactor accident occurred in the so-called NRX reactor at Chalk River Laboratories.

There are numerous facilities in the complex, around 160 buildings on an area of ​​around 40 square kilometers. The Chalk River Laboratories has facilities for fuel production, research, and radioactive waste management and storage. The operator has built systems for the production of medical radioisotopes and is currently putting further such systems into operation. These facilities, which are not yet operational, are two non-power reactors (MAPLE 1 and MAPLE 2) and a processing plant . Waste from operations is stored on site on a long-term basis. These areas are also supplied with radioactive waste from other facilities (e.g. radioisotropic producers and users, hospitals, universities and industrial plants) across Canada.

Scientists and engineers conduct research and product development. The CANDU reactor technology is being further developed in the plant. The facility also conducts research in the fields of physics, metallurgy, chemistry, biology and technology. Environmental scientists and a strict environmental protection program ensure that the effects of the processes in the plant are negligible for the health of employees, the public and the environment. The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor, Canada's largest and most productive scientific facility and one of the world's most versatile research reactors, has been operated by Chalk River Laboratories since 1957. NRU is Canada's only major materials test reactor testing materials and nuclear fuel for CANDU reactors and Canada's nuclear industry. It also serves as a neutron source and also produces the majority of the world's medical isotopes used in the diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening diseases, helping to treat more than 21 million people in 60 countries annually. In the NRU reactor, scientists can e.g. B. Research steel, biological tissue or superconductors . However, NRU is not used to generate electricity.

The Chalk River Labs is an AECL facility and operates as a research (in partnership with the National Research Council) and manufacturing facility (AECL) in support of other Canadian utility companies.

history

The site for the first Canadian nuclear reactors was selected by the National Research Council of Canada. The site was approved by Canadian Minister Clarence D. Howe in August 1944. In October 1944, 350 men were on site to clear trees and ferns on the banks of the Ottawa River and to take over the construction of roads, aqueducts, and basic infrastructure. Within a year there were over 3,000 workers at the laboratory facility.

The Zero Energy Experimental Pile (ZEEP) reactor was the result of a 1942 collaboration between British and Canadian researchers to set up a research laboratory in Montreal under the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). On September 5, 1945, the first nuclear reactor outside the United States went into operation. In 1946, the NRC closed the Montreal laboratory and focused on the Chalk River facility. In 1952, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) was founded by the government to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which also took over the operation of the Chalk River Labs. Since 1950, the AECL has put various research reactors into operation for the production of nuclear material for medical and scientific applications. The Chalk River Labs are also the location of the Rolphton nuclear power plant , the first nuclear power plant in Canada, which went online in 1962; a partnership between AECL and the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario. This reactor was a demonstration of the CANDU design.

Reactors

The ZEEP reactor went into operation 13 years after the discovery of neutrons. The National Research Council of Canada wanted to learn about the nuclear fission process at Chalk River Laboratories. ZEEP was a very simple construction of the nuclear reactor. A large empty tank with a pipeline at the bottom formed the base: a vertical cylinder nearly three meters high and about two meters in diameter. Fuel rods were mounted in this tank and the uranium was stacked inside aluminum tubes. The last component required was a moderator to slow down the fast neutrons. Heavy water was chosen as the moderator in the ZEEP . Heavy water is about 10% heavier than "normal" water and is well suited as a moderator. The nuclear fission chain reaction was started by pumping heavy water through the pipeline up into the tank. Scientists used ZEEP to better understand how reactor cores work. It was a low power experiment that delivered less than 10 watts of heat.

The NRX reactor , the most powerful research facility of its day, is also located in the Chalk River Laboratories. ZEEP served as a template for the design of the NRX reactor. The NRX was already under construction when ZEEP was completed. The NRX reactor was the main target when Chalk River Laboratories was built in the mid-1940s. A serious accident occurred in the NRX reactor on December 12, 1952 .

The design of the NRU reactor began in 1949. In 1957 the NRU reactor was completed. It had an output of 200 megawatts. The abbreviation NRU is used today like the name of the reactor, although the reactor was originally called the National Research Universal reactor . The reactor is a multi-purpose reactor, has an output of 125 MW and serves as a neutron source.

Others

The Canadian Neutron Beam Center (NRC-CNBC) is also located on the premises .

The nuclear power demonstration waste management facility in Rolphton, Ontario, owned by AECL, consists of a Nuclear Power Demonstration that was operational between 1962 and 1987 and has since been decommissioned. Various non-nuclear facilities on site have since been demolished. The radioactive parts cannot be reprocessed or recycled, nor can they be stored like normal waste. Radioactive waste from the reactor was taken to a nuclear waste management facility at Chalk River Laboratories.

Founded in 1944, Chalk River Laboratories have been Canada's most contaminated nuclear site, threatening the drinking water supplies of millions of Canadians, including residents of the capital Ottawa. In addition to the research activities, radioactive waste is also disposed of, the largest inventory of radioactive waste in Canada is located in the Chalk River Laboratories. This concerns both solid and liquid low, medium and high level radioactive waste. During the first years of operation, radioactive waste was handled carelessly, so the construction site was radioactively contaminated. AECL announced that it would cost an estimated $ 2.6 billion to clean up Chalk River Laboratories over the next 300 years. The Canadian government allocated AECL $ 17.5 billion over the past 50 years to run the research and design program for the CANDU reactors.

Data of the reactors

The following reactors have been or are being operated or are under construction at Chalk River Laboratories:

reactor Reactor type thermal
performance 		start of building Start of operations Shutdown
MAPLE 1 TANK IN POOL 10,000 kWt 10/10/1997 - -
MAPLE 2 TANK IN POOL 10,000 kWt 01/01/1997 - -
NRU Heavy water reactor 135,000 kWt 01/01/1952 03/11/1957 March 31, 2018
NRX Heavy water reactor 42,000 kWt 01/01/1944 07/22/1947 03/30/1993
PTR Light water reactor 0.1 kWt 05/01/1956 11/01/1957 05.10.1990
ZED-2 TANK 0.2 kWt December 01, 1958 09/01/1960 -
ZEEP Heavy water reactor 0.0 kWt 01/01/1945 09/01/1945 10/10/1970

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Chalk River Labs ( Memento from July 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Nuclear Science - Chalk River Laboratories ( Memento from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Chalk River nuclear accidents
  4. ↑ a b c d e Chalk River ( Memento from December 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Chalk River (English).
  6. ↑ atomunfall.de . Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  7. ↑ The NRU Reactor ( Memento from July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ The NRU Reactor - 1947: NRX ( Memento April 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Chalk River (English).
  10. ^ The NRU Reactor - 1945: ZEEP ( Memento from April 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ The NRU Reactor - 1957: NRU ( Memento from June 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Neutron Sources .
  13. ↑ Directions to the Chalk River Laboratories - National Research Council Canada ( Memento from February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Sierra Club of Canada - Clean Up Chalk River! ( Memento from October 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ a b Research Reactor Database of the IAEA (English).

Coordinates: 46 ° 2 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 77 ° 22 ′ 1.7 ″  W.