20 Facts About CANDU reactor

In 2020, the CANDU reactor SMR was not selected for further design work for a Canadian demonstration project.

Since most of the fuel is usually U, most CANDU reactor designs are based on thin fuel rods separated by moderator, allowing the neutrons to travel in the moderator before entering the fuel again.

The slow response of these gamma-generated neutrons delays the response of the CANDU reactor and gives the operators extra time in case of an emergency.

Since gamma rays travel for meters through water, an increased rate of chain reaction in one part of the CANDU reactor will produce a response from the rest of the CANDU reactor, allowing various negative feedbacks to stabilize the reaction.

CANDU reactor includes a number of active and passive safety features in its design.

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The deliberately "sluggish" response of the fission process in CANDU reactor allows controllers more time to diagnose and deal with problems.

The CANDU designs have several emergency cooling systems, as well as having limited self-pumping capability through thermal means .

Since heavy water is less efficient than light water at slowing neutrons, CANDU reactor needs a larger moderator-to-fuel ratio and a larger core for the same power output.

Some CANDU reactor plants suffered from cost overruns during construction, often from external factors such as government action.

The plutonium for India's first nuclear detonation, Operation Smiling Buddha in 1974, was produced in a CIRUS CANDU reactor supplied by Canada and partially paid for by the Canadian government using heavy water supplied by the United States.

Gentilly-1, in Becancour, Quebec, near Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, was an experimental version of CANDU reactor, using a boiling light-water coolant and vertical pressure tubes, but was not considered successful and closed after seven years of fitful operation.

CANDU reactor has started a 50-year decommissioning process estimated to cost $1.

The oil used has a higher boiling point than water, allowing the CANDU reactor to operate at higher temperatures and lower pressures than a conventional CANDU reactor.

Main change, and the most radical among the CANDU reactor generations, is the use of pressurized light water as the coolant.

CANDU reactor was later purchased by Bruce Power, who proposed expanding the plant to four units of a total 4.

The CANDU reactor was deliberately designed to reduce the need for very large machined parts, making it suitable for construction by countries without a major industrial base.

The first CANDU reactor, then known as RAPP-1 for "Rajasthan Atomic Power Project", began operation in 1972.

Construction of the RAPP-2 CANDU reactor was still underway when India detonated its first atomic bomb in 1974, leading to Canada ending nuclear dealings with the country.

Qinshan is the first CANDU-6 project to use open-top reactor building construction, and the first project where commercial operation began earlier than the projected date.

Information on economic performance on CANDU is somewhat lopsided; the majority of reactors are in Ontario, which is the "most public" among the major CANDU operators.