Nuclear Power Demonstration

Nuclear Power Demonstration
Nuclear Power Demonstration
Country	Canada
Location	Rolphton, Ontario (200 km northwest of Ottawa, Ontario)
Coordinates	46°11′12″N77°39′28″W / 46.18667°N 77.65778°W Coordinates: 46°11′12″N77°39′28″W / 46.18667°N 77.65778°W
Commission date	1962
Decommission date	1987
Owner(s)	Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
Operator(s)	Ontario Hydro
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	CANDU (prototype)
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	19.5 MW
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Last updated August 03, 2019

Nuclear Power Demonstration (or NPD) was the first Canadian nuclear power reactor, and the prototype for the CANDU reactor design. Built by Canadian General Electric (now GE Canada), in partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Generation) and the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), it consisted of a single 22 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) unit located in Rolphton, Ontario, not far from AECL's Chalk River Laboratories. NPD was owned by AECL and operated by Ontario Hydro.

Nuclear reactor device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction

A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid, which in turn runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of weapons-grade plutonium. As of early 2019, the IAEA reports there are 454 nuclear power reactors and 226 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.

General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate incorporated in New York City and headquartered in Boston. As of 2018, the company operates through the following segments: aviation, healthcare, power, renewable energy, digital industry, additive manufacturing, venture capital and finance, lighting, and oil and gas.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this technology to Candu Energy.

The NPD was the prototype and proving ground for research and development that led to commercial application of the CANDU system for generating electric power from a nuclear plant using natural uranium fuel, heavy water moderator and coolant in a pressure tube configuration with on-power refuelling.

Natural uranium refers to uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.711% uranium-235, 99.284% uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight (0.0055%). Approximately 2.2% of its radioactivity comes from uranium-235, 48.6% from uranium-238, and 49.2% from uranium-234.

Heavy water is a form of water that contains a larger than normal amount of the hydrogen isotope deuterium, rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water. The presence of deuterium gives the water different nuclear properties, and the increase of mass gives it slightly different physical and chemical properties when compared to normal water.

Neutron moderator medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, turning them into thermal neutrons that can sustain nuclear chain reactions; e.g. water, graphite, heavy water, beryllium

In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction involving uranium-235 or a similar fissile nuclide.

Description

The NPD station was located on the west bank of the Ottawa River about 140 miles (230 km) upstream from the City of Ottawa. It was situated close by the AECL research establishment at Chalk River and the HEPC hydro generating station at Des Joachims, Ontario. It had a maximum continuous output of 22 MW(e), which gave a net station output of 19.5 MW(e).

Ottawa River river flowing draining Abitibi-Témiscamingue, then flowing between Ontario and Quebec, in Canada

The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named in honor of the Odawa people. For most of its length, it defines the border between these two provinces. It is a major tributary of the St. Lawrence River and the longest river in Quebec.

Chalk River is a small rural village, part of the Laurentian Hills municipality in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Upper Ottawa Valley along Highway 17, 10 km inland (west) from the Ottawa River, approximately 21 km northwest of Petawawa, and 182 km northwest of Ottawa. Chalk River was a separate municipality until January 1, 2000, when the United Townships of Rolph, Buchanan, Wylie and McKay and the Village of Chalk River were merged.

The reactor was fueled with 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of UO₂ in the form of ceramic pellets sheathed in Zircaloy-2 tubes. The fuel was subdivided into nine bundles per channel, and fuel changing was designed to be carried out on power by remotely operated machines which push a fresh bundle in one end of the channel and remove the spent bundle from the other end, a design feature that carried through to the later CANDU products.

The primary role of NPD was as a prototype for CANDU engineering. Over the years it served as a test bed for new fuels, materials, components, and instruments.

Equally important, NPD was the training and simulation center for generations of Canadian and off-shore CANDU operations staff. This role began shortly after the start of operation, when a training program was set up by Ontario Hydro.

History

In December 1961, the major construction phase was concluded and system testing was in full swing. Criticality was first attained on April 11, 1962, and first steam of nuclear origin was produced on May 8. The first electrical power was fed to the system on June 4, and on June 28 first full-power generation of 20 MW(e) gross was attained.

NPD began operation in 1962 and was operational until 1987, long after vastly more powerful and modern CANDU units came on-line. The first nuclear-produced power in Canada was generated at NPD, which also served as the "proof of concept" prototype for the later CANDU designs. As with all commercial CANDU units to follow, NPD operated with natural uranium fuel in a horizontal pressure-tube core, was both moderated and cooled by heavy water, and was refuellable on-load. NPD closed in 1987 after exceeding its operational goals. As of 2006, all fuel and non-nuclear equipment have been removed from the site, while much of the nuclear equipment is still present. AECL intends to leave potentially active or contaminated equipment on site for some decades yet to allow for further radioactive decay.

Prototype early sample or model built to test a concept or process

A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea.

Uranium Chemical element with atomic number 92

Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly radioactive because all isotopes of uranium are unstable, with half-lives varying between 159,200 years and 4.5 billion years. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 and uranium-235. Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead, and slightly lower than that of gold or tungsten. It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite.

The site was commemorated by a historical plaque detailing the operational history and highlights of the station. However, for reasons of security and public safety, the plaque is set three kilometres west of the site at a highway lookout, and the site itself cannot be seen from the plaque's location. Another bronze plaque and monument commemorating NPD, formerly located on the NPD site, was relocated to the Schoolhouse Museum about three kilometers to the east of the site. The Schoolhouse Museum also includes a scale model of the plant and other historical artefacts.

NPD was followed by the 200 MWe Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station on the shore of Lake Huron.

The Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station was Canada’s first full-scale nuclear power plant and the second CANDU pressurised heavy water reactor. Its success was a major milestone and marked Canada's entry into the global nuclear power scene.

Lake Huron one of the Great Lakes of North America

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as its westerly counterpart, to which it is connected by the 5-mile-wide (8.0 km), 20-fathom-deep Straits of Mackinac. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the state of Michigan in the United States. The name of the lake is derived from early French explorers who named it for the Huron people inhabiting the region. The Huronian glaciation was named due to evidence collected from Lake Huron region. The northern parts of the lake include the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Across the lake to the southwest is Saginaw Bay. The main inlet is the St. Marys River, and the main outlet is the St. Clair River.

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The CANDU is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide moderator and its use of uranium fuel. CANDU reactors were first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Canadian General Electric, and other companies.

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Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington, Ontario. It is a large nuclear facility comprising four CANDU nuclear reactors with a total output of 3,512 MWe when all units are online. It is Canada's second-largest NPS and provides about 20 percent of Ontario's electricity needs, enough to serve a city of two million people.

Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station located 2 km northeast of Point Lepreau, New Brunswick, Canada. The facility was constructed between 1975-1983 by NB Power, the provincially owned public utility.

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