How should Canada resolve the medical isotope crisis? A new report says we should build a new multi-purpose research reactor which can produce isotopes on the side.  Though this is the most expensive of the options presented, the authors point out the impressive benefits a multi-purpose reactor would offer. The logic of this recommendation will, […]

Areva is still in the Ontario reactor competition, and remains open to playing a role in the future of Canadian nuclear research, a company executive said in a conference call on September 18. This follows the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s announcement on August 31 that it sees “no fundamental barriers” to licensing the new CANDU reactor in Canada. AECL, […]

Alberta could use nuclear power. Canada’s current economic engine is like one of those carbureted big-block V-8s from the 1970s: impressive power, but lousy fuel economy and lots of emissions. This is because Alberta’s electricity sector is mainly fossil-fired, and because the oilsands use enormous amounts of natural gas

Imagine an oilsands operation in Alberta where the heat to make the steam that separates oil from sand is delivered from a small nuclear reactor, which arrives on a flatbed truck. At the site, the reactor is entombed in a below-ground bunker, where it could withstand a hit from a Russian AT-14 antitank missile (which […]