Ottawa: On January 28 the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced that it had completed Phase 3 of the Pre-Project Design Review of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL) Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000). This makes the ACR-1000 the first advanced nuclear power reactor to have completed all three phases of a vendor pre-project design review by the CNSC.
As a result of passing the third and final phase of the CNSC Vendor Pre-Project Design Review, the ACR-1000 is seen as satisfying the national nuclear regulator’s general expectations for new nuclear power plants in Canada. The CNSC findings indicate there are no fundamental barriers to licensing the reactor design in Canada.
“The ACR-1000 is the nexus between CANDU and light water reactor technology,” said Hugh MacDiarmid, President and Chief Executive Officer at AECL. “It has the essential features of our proven CANDU reactors and is designed to offer improved operations and maintenance capacity as well as low and stable operating costs for our customers. We are pleased that the CNSC report endorses its design viability in the Canadian market.”
The objective of a Vendor Pre-Project Design Review is to verify, at a high level, the acceptability of a nuclear reactor design with respect to Canadian safety requirements and expectations. To achieve this objective, CNSC staff assessed specific safety and security aspects of the ACR-1000 design to identify any potential technical issues that could constitute a potential fundamental barrier to licensing a new reactor design in Canada.