Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Canada’s nuclear Crown corporation, and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology laboratory, are proud to announce the launch of a Request for Expressions of Interest (REI) to better understand market interest in licensing AECL’s SLOWPOKE reactor and nuclear battery technologies for commercialization opportunities. The REI invites technology developers and other interested stakeholders to submit their ideas and feedback on the innovative reactor designs and technologies, which collectively have broad applications including electricity generation, district heating, isotope production and physics research.
AECL’s SLOWPOKE technology is a family of low-pressure pool-type reactors that includes the SLOWPOKE-2, a small, simple, low-cost and inherently safe reactor design that has years of operating experience and has been successfully licensed and safely operated in Canada for decades. Although never completed, the nuclear battery technology is a solid-state microreactor concept that would be capable of producing a combination of electricity (up to 600 kW e ) and heat (up to 2,400 kW th at ~400 °C) for up to 15 years without refueling, and could also survive all hypothetical accident scenarios without human intervention.
“Through our program of work, which includes the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) program and the Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative (CNRI), CNL has leveraged its resources to help develop and deploy the next generation of nuclear reactors here in Canada,” said Lou Riccoboni, CNL’s Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Business Development. “With this in mind, we see real opportunity and value in AECL’s SLOWPOKE and nuclear battery designs, which could play a key role in combating climate change and advancing research in physics and health sciences. This DEI process allows us to engage technology developers to determine if there is a commercial interest in exploiting these innovative designs, which would help advance these important causes, while leveraging AECL’s intellectual property on behalf of Canadian taxpayers.”
Among the many attractions of the SLOWPOKE family of reactors are the “safe by physics” design features that simplify operations and licensing, and allow unattended operation for up to 24 hours. These reactors have been used safely for approximately five decades in Canada and Jamaica, on university campuses and government facilities, for applications such as neutron activation analysis, neutron imaging and education. The success of the small SLOWPOKE research reactors has also motivated exploration of the potential for larger versions of the concept, which could be used for district heating. This initiative began with the SLOWPOKE Demonstration Reactor (SDR), a 2 MW th test reactor built at AECL’s Whiteshell Laboratories near Pinawa, Manitoba. The RDS reached its first criticality in 1987 and underwent various experiments to confirm the physical behavior of the reactor, its operating characteristics and the performance of the shutdown system.
Widely considered for power or industrial thermal processes, the AECL nuclear battery is a graphite-moderated, heat-pipe-cooled, “solid-state” microreactor (600 kW e / 2400 kW th ) concept that was developed and refined by AECL in the 1980s and 1990s. A combination of design features including accident-tolerant fuel, passive cooling, a large thermal reservoir, and negative temperature feedbacks make the technology inherently safe. The AECL nuclear battery is also expected to survive all hypothetical accident scenarios without human intervention, and is suitable for off-grid applications, with the potential to provide a combination of electricity and heat (at ~400°C) for approximately 15 years, without recharging.
With initial research suggesting that both reactors could have broad appeal within the international technology development community, AECL and CNL are now keen to learn more about market interest in these technologies, including reactor design, engineering and sales, as well as end-use applications, such as district heating, power generation, isotope production and neutron activation analysis.