The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is a provincial treasury board crown corporation engaged in research and technology development on behalf of the provincial government and private industry.[3] It focuses on applied research and development projects that generate profit.[4] Some of its funding comes from government grants, but it generates the balance from selling products and services.[5] With nearly 300 employees and $137 million in annual revenues, SRC is the second largest research and technology organization in Canada.[6]
The Province of Saskatchewan established SRC in 1947.[7][8] SRC carried out its work through grants-in-aid to specific applied research activities at the University of Saskatchewan.[9] Saskatchewan Research Council's first Director of Research was Thorbergur Thorvaldson, head of the university's chemistry department.[9][10]
In 1954, SRC expanded its mandate to incorporate independent research. Under Warren's direction, SRC opened its own laboratories in 1958 and then expanded in 1963.[11][6] In 1986 the research and development branch of SaskOil was transferred to SRC.[12]
Research
SRC's research history includes developing a residential energy conservation research report that was used in the National Building Code of Canada.[9] In the late 1970s, the SRC was contracted to design and build a passive solar house that was suitable for Canadian prairie conditions. The project, which hired Harold Orr from the National Research Council, resulted in the construction of the Saskatchewan Conservation House in Regina in 1977.[13] The project featured innovations such as the blower door test, air-to-air heat exchange, and an airtight construction that became influential in low-energy building design.[14] The house has been cited as an inspiration for the passive house building standard.[15]
SRC facility in Saskatoon
SRC mapped the groundwater resources in Saskatchewan south of the Precambrian Shield.[9] Its scientists evaluated Saskatchewan's extensive lignite (coal) resources. SRC's GenServe Laboratories were involved in testing for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow disease).[9] SRC is also known for building the Factor 9 home, which uses 90 per cent less energy and 50 per cent less water than a similar home built during the 1970s.[16] In the past they housed a SLOWPOKE-II nuclear research reactor (that had 16kW thermal power) that performed analytical tests. SRC's SLOWPOKE-2 reactor operated from 1981 until being shut down in December 2017. Decommissioning was expected to be completed sometime in 2020.[17] In the early 2000s, SRC developed a suite of dual-fuel hydrogen vehicles that led to the launch of Saskatchewan's first hydrogen fuelling station in 2010[18]
Current research is conducted in a range of laboratories and test facilities.[5] SRC's Environmental Analytical Laboratories provide environmental monitoring and other tests to clients.[19] Its Geoanalytical Laboratory provides geochemical analyses for the mineral exploration industry.[20] Other labs include Petroleum Analytical Laboratories, a Biofuels Test Centre,[21] a Pipe Flow Technology Centre,[22] and a diamond testing facility.[23]
SRC is contracted by the Government of Saskatchewan to manage the thirty-seven abandoned uranium mine and mill sites near Lake Athabasca through Project CLEANS.[24]
In 2017, SRC launched the Centre for the Demonstration of Emissions Reduction (CeDER), a test and verification facility to help industry manage and reduce its GHG emissions.[25]
In 2020, SRC was awarded $31 million in funding for a first-of-its-kind Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatchewan.[26]
The National Research Council Canada is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada.
The Saskatchewan Party is a conservative political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was founded in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal Party members who sought to unite opposition to the governing New Democratic Party. Since 2007, the Saskatchewan Party has been the province's governing party, and both the party and the province are currently led by Premier Scott Moe.
Chalk River Laboratories is a Canadian nuclear research facility in Deep River, about 180 km (110 mi) north-west of Ottawa.
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian Crown corporation and the largest nuclear science and technology laboratory in Canada. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this technology to Candu Energy.
Melfort is a city in Saskatchewan, Canada, located approximately 95 kilometres (59 mi) southeast of Prince Albert, 172 kilometres (107 mi) northeast of Saskatoon and 280 kilometres (170 mi) north of Regina.
A low-energy house is characterized by an energy-efficient design and technical features which enable it to provide high living standards and comfort with low energy consumption and carbon emissions. Traditional heating and active cooling systems are absent, or their use is secondary. Low-energy buildings may be viewed as examples of sustainable architecture. Low-energy houses often have active and passive solar building design and components, which reduce the house's energy consumption and minimally impact the resident's lifestyle. Throughout the world, companies and non-profit organizations provide guidelines and issue certifications to guarantee the energy performance of buildings and their processes and materials. Certifications include passive house, BBC—Bâtiment Basse Consommation—Effinergie (France), zero-carbon house (UK), and Minergie (Switzerland).
Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 550,000 customers and manages nearly $13 billion in assets. SaskPower is a major employer in the province with over 3,100 permanent full-time staff located in approximately 70 communities.
Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion.
The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was a 135 MW nuclear research reactor built in the Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario, one of Canada’s national science facilities. It was a multipurpose science facility that served three main roles. It generated radionuclides used to treat or diagnose over 20 million people in 80 countries every year. It was the neutron source for the NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre: a materials research centre that grew from the Nobel Prize-winning work of Bertram Brockhouse. It was the test bed for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to develop fuels and materials for the CANDU reactor. At the time of its retirement on March 31, 2018, it was the world's oldest operating nuclear reactor.
The SLOWPOKE is a family of low-energy, tank-in-pool type nuclear research reactors designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) beginning in the late 1960s. John W. Hilborn is the scientist most closely associated with their design. They are beryllium-reflected with a very low critical mass, but provide neutron fluxes higher than available from a small particle accelerator or other radioactive sources.
The Whiteshell Laboratories, originally known as the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment (WNRE) was an Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) laboratory in Manitoba, northeast of Winnipeg. It was originally built as a home for the experimental WR-1 reactor, but over time came to host a variety of experimental systems, including a SLOWPOKE reactor and the Underground Research Laboratory to study nuclear waste disposal. Employment peaked in the early 1970s at about 1,300, but during the 1980s the experiments began to wind down, and in 2003 the decision was made to close the site. As of 2017 the site is undergoing decommissioning with a planned completion date in 2024. The decommissioning process for WR-1 involves transporting low-level nuclear waste to another Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) research site, Chalk River Laboratories in Ottawa for containment, and encasing the reactor in concrete. The details of this process continue to be criticized, evaluated, and revised.
Nuclear power in Canada is provided by 19 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 13.5 gigawatt (GW), producing a total of 95.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which accounted for 16.6% of the country's total electric energy generation in 2015. All but one of these reactors are located in Ontario, where they produced 61% of the province's electricity in 2019. Seven smaller reactors are used for research and to produce radiopharmaceuticals for use in nuclear medicine.
Innovation Place is the registered business name of the Saskatchewan Opportunities Corporation (SOCO), a crown corporation in Saskatchewan. SOCO operates two research parks: one located near the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and the second near the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan. In 2018, approximately 140 companies were based at Innovation Place. Research parks such as Innovation Place are sometimes referred to as science parks or technology parks.
Expenditures by federal and provincial organizations on scientific research and development accounted for about 10% of all such spending in Canada in 2006. These organizations are active in natural and social science research, engineering research, industrial research and medical research.
The economy of Saskatchewan has been associated with agriculture resulting in the moniker "Bread Basket of Canada" and Bread Basket of the World. According to the Government of Saskatchewan, approximately 95% of all items produced in Saskatchewan, depend on the basic resources available within the province. Various grains, livestock, oil and gas, potash, uranium, wood and their spin off industries fuel the economy.
The geology of Saskatchewan can be divided into two main geological regions, the Precambrian Canadian Shield and the Phanerozoic Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Within the Precambrian shield exists the Athabasca sedimentary basin. Meteorite impacts have altered the natural geological formation processes. The prairies were most recently affected by glacial events in the Quaternary period.
Nuclear industry in Canada is an active business and research sector, producing about 15% of its electricity in nuclear power plants of domestic design. Canada is the world's largest exporter of uranium, and has the world's second largest proven reserves. Canada also exports nuclear technology within the terms of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory, and is the world's largest producer of radioactive medical isotopes.
The Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor or (PARR) are two nuclear research reactors and two other experimental neutron sources located in the PINSTECH Laboratory, Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (Fedoruk Centre) is an institute located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada that was established by the University of Saskatchewan in 2011 as the Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI). The Fedoruk Centre does not have a mandate to conduct research itself. Instead, it acts as a conduit to fund nuclear released research projects in Saskatchewan and to oversee the operation of nuclear facilities on the university campus such as the universities cyclotron facility. The Fedoruk Centre is involved in funding research in the nuclear medicine, materials science, nuclear energy systems including small reactor design, and environmental and social topics related to nuclear technology. On October 3, 2012, the name of the organization was changed from the Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation to the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation in honour of Sylvia Fedoruk who did pioneering work in the treatment of cancer using cobalt-60 radiation therapy in the 1950s.
Harold Walter Orr is a Canadian mechanical engineer known for his work on energy-efficient construction and air leakage in houses, in particular the prioritization of energy demand reduction over active systems through the use of superinsulation and airtightness in passive design. Among Orr's major technical works are Design and construction of low energy houses in Saskatchewan (1982) and Energy efficient housing on the prairies (1982).
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