AECL provides update on NRU activities

Friday, Jul 03, 2009

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) provides the following status report on the NRU reactor at its Chalk River Laboratories.

Non Destructive Examinations (NDE) of the interior of the aluminium vessel continues. The heavy water level in the reactor vessel is being maintained at approximately 1.2 metres and the heavy water leak continues at a reduced flow at less than 0.5 kgs/hr.

With approximately 30 per cent of the vessel circumference scanned, the NDE teams have been making progress as expected on this phase of the Vessel Leak Repair Project. Examinations to date continue to support AECL’s belief that the necessary vessel repairs can be made and that NRU will be safely returned to service.

AECL has awarded contracts to three specialized vendors to begin work on vessel cleaning and repair options. Results from the NDE testing along with the recommendations put forth by the repair vendors will be used by AECL to determine the best repair technique.

Further guidance on a return to service date will be provided as more data is collected, and analyzed to finalize the repair technique and extent of required repairs.

AECL continues to communicate regularly with the CNSC on NRU outage issues, and CNSC safety inspectors at Chalk River are closely following work at NRU.

AECL confirms that there is no threat to workers, the public, the environment or nuclear safety related to this event. AECL will continue to provide updates to the CNSC and stakeholders as new information becomes available.

Source: AECL