Canada’s nuclear power stations avoided losses of hundreds of millions of dollars in energy production and prevented gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions. Thousands of jobs were supported. Continuing research aims for billion-dollar impacts.
Canada’s fleet of nuclear power plants have realized impacts worth hundreds of millions from research supported by a decade of stress measurements using neutron beams to ensure their safe, reliable and economic operations.
The Canadian nuclear industry rose to immediate challenges posed by the cracking issues, employing neutron beams as part of their research on materials. That research provided confidence to continue with a multi-billion export project, enabled all the stations to assure safety for continued, and resulted in spin-off technology.
Operators of nuclear power plants using Canadian technology joined together to study the cracking issues observed at Point Lepreau and later at Gentilly-2, and ultimately solved the underlying issue for all Canadian reactors.
