2d Basics About Nuclear Power Plants and Waste

Source: Canadian Nuclear Association https://cna.ca/reactors-and-smrs/how-a-nuclear-reactorworks/

Canadian nuclear power reactors are CANDU reactors – heavy water reactors developed by Canadian scientists and engineers. CANDU stands for Canada deuterium uranium, because it uses deuterium oxide (heavy water) as a moderator and coolant and uses natural (not enriched) uranium as a fuel. There are 19 in operation in Canada and another 11 elsewhere in the world. India also has 16 nuclear reactors that are based on the CANDU model.

I have included this schematic because it shows other important elements of a nuclear power plant.  When used fuel rods are first taken from a reactor, they are both thermally and radioactively hot and must be cooled down.  They are placed in a special cooling pool close to the reactor, shown as “used fuel management.”

About a decade ago, my husband Dr David Jones was invited as a guest speaker on uranium mining at a conference in Sweden.  We took the opportunity to visit every nuclear facility we could and included all stages of nuclear waste management. I talked them into giving me a copy of the video below which shows some of the aspects of waste handling in Sweden. It is worth watching.

Click on the video to start it