Canada’s National Research Universal (NRU) – one of the largest and most versatile research reactors in the world – has been permanently shut down. The reactor at the Chalk River site ceased production in October 2016, but had since remained on standby.
Operator Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) announced yesterday that the reactor had been “quietly shut down for the last time” at 7.00pm on 31 March. The reactor will now be placed into a “state of storage” prior to decommissioning.
NRU began operations in 1957. In 2000, the Canadian government announced that the reactor would cease routine production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) in 31 October 2016. However, in February 2015 the government announced its decision to support an extension of the reactor’s operations until October 2016. Since then, NRU has remained on standby “in case of a significant shortage which could not be mitigated by other means”, AECL said.
The reactor produced about 40% of world supply of Mo-99 – the precursor of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used isotope in nuclear medicine. Research reactors in Australia, Europe, Russia and South Africa have since met demand.
World Nuclear News – April 3, 2018.
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