As a romanian, I find this video very useful since Romania is one of the few countries (other than Canada) which uses CANDU reactors, really helpful to see how my country's nuclear reactors work!
This is probably of my longest recent videos on this channels! Would love to get your feedback on other Ultimate guides that I can potentially do next!
Safety systems are so interesting! It would be awesome if you did a video series on them. I also seem to recall you saying your video on the most common reactor types was very simplified - an in-depth series about that would also be great! If you don't already have a video on your channel about them a video about molten fuel reactors would also be very interesting.
Just discovered this awesome channel! I would love to see content on Canada's medical isotope production, and fast reactors, and fuel cycle possibilities with CANDUs. I heard CANDUs can run as breeders and burn a variety of fuels? Would love to hear more about fuel possibilities and fuel life cycles in general(like reprocessing capabilities etc). Thanks!
No idea, just found you tonight. Fantastic work, very informative. Heh. Back in the early Eighties we sent a mechanic to the Pickering NGS to repair a forklift. During the radiation check on the way out they found radioactive traces on his pants. He was terrified they were going to send him back to his truck wearing his underwear at one point…
Been in love with these since I was a kid and my dad took me to visit Chalk River. Learning our country is a world leader in nuclear engineering made me really proud of what we can do. And then as I grew-up I learned how much CANDU is an exemplary case of “doing it right” in so many ways. I probably should have gone into nuclear engineering, but at least I can advocate for them. I’ve educated many fellow Canadians about how amazing these are and emphasized how we really should be building more. They’re just built different, in the best way. Learning all the lessons possible from NRX has paid-off. Edit: Five-hour video about CANDU safety systems please. :>
Great work Osama! This material serves as a excellent intro for upcoming nuclear engineering students at our beloved Ontario Tech University 's. This presentation could certainly add value to potential engineers in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and a good resource refresher for nuclear engineering young professionals. Keep up the good work, I appreciated the detailed explanations and the "techno-info-edutainment" approach. I look forward to more content. Kudos!
Moltex Energy is building a reactor at Point Lepreau in Canada. It will take spent CANDU fuel and extract the 95% energy that the original reactor cannot use. It can work with any ceramic spent fuel.
Great content well presented. The messy bit about selling and building CANDUs worldwide has a bit to do with SNC. Remember them🥴? Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) sold the engineering and construction rights to SNC 2011 for a pittance. The safety track record of CANDU is superb and the additional ability to burn “spent fuel” is another big bonus.
Osama, just got to know your work "spreading the Nuclear word"! What a great collection! Started with the Candu and can't stop! Thanks for all the work put into these!
You can handle LEU, prior to irradiation too. The new bundles used in light water rx are enriched between 1-4ish% u235 and they are shipped and inspected without shielding.
Nice video. Thank you. Just one comment: when you talk about the safety systems, when you mention SDS#1 with the 28 cadmium rods (shut-off rods) please make sure you do not create confusion by referring to control rods and adjuster rods. I noticed this also in your video "CANDU Reactor Explained in 5 minutes" - when you draw, you should write shut-off rods instead of adjuster / control rods. In technical terms, we make a distinction between the control function in normal operation and the fast shutdown action of SDS#1 (which has no role in normal operation, but just in transients and accidents). I am sure you know this already. For a layman it makes no difference (and I guess this is why you presented things this way), but for us in the nuclear industry it is important, if we want to use your videos in a professional setting.
In operations there is a clear distinction between control rods, which are adjusters and absorbers. However, this video is not aimed toward operations training. Its a introductory video for those new to the nuclear industry or interested in learning about concepts relevant to CANDU. "The Essential CANDU" by UNENE also uses these phrases interchangeably (shutdown & control rods) to help simplify concepts (Section 2.7, point#3: unene.ca/essentialcandu/pdf/13%20-%20Reactor%20Safety%20Design%20and%20Safety%20Analysis.pdf). Whether it be solely industry or general public, in order to understand complex topics you need to be introduced to terms one by one. Happy to make another video solely on the topic of control rods/adjusters/absorbers/shutdown rods if you wish. Are you a representative from the Romanian Nuclear industry? Maybe we can connect via email and see how we can build these resources together. My email is osama.baig@ontariotechu.net
Man great video, going to check out more of your channel! Work at Pickering and there is so much that goes into Fuel Handling, it's super cool. OPG should play this video during some of the training classes.
Yess I highly encourage that. Training instructors at Nuclear utilities and vendors are all encouraged to use this content. Its free, its high quality and it can provide a lot of value to those that are onboarding in the industry
Hi Andrew, U also work at OPG Pickering? Do you work there for a long time? I am in background checking now and still waiting for the final Job offer. Do you have any experience with how they were going to train the fresh gays? Would you mind giving me some advice also? Thanks so much :)
Can someone help me here -- I seem to be misunderstanding a portion of this. The uranium/ceramic pellets inside the calandria tubes....naturally create a fission process and create energy..causing the heavy water(which is water with Deauterium added into it?) surrounding the calandria tubes, this gets the tubes (made of zirconium) to get hot and boil the heavy water which then releases non-radiation steam, driving the turbines etc etc.... OR are the inside of the calandria tubes (with the pellets) filled with water?.... sorry...VERY new into this knowledge - it is a LOT to understand and learn (esp as an older adult).. maybe I am just simple lol thanks in advance - love this fellas channel. Cheers from T.O.
Great video im just learning about Canadian nuclear programs, designs, plants and future progress and this is super informational. I had no idea of Canadas contribution to nuclear power generation.
Glad you are getting the chance to do research on Canada's nuclear industry, indeed it is a phenomenal industry. I've made a few videos on some reactor tours recently, vlogs specifically. Hope you get a chance to check those out
Great video about a great reactor design. Does Canada require "waste" to be stored in a manner where it can be recovered for reprocessing in the future?
Hi Osama! Another great video, thanks for providing that! What if you stored a used fuel bundle for a while to wait for some neutron poisons to decay and then put it back into the reactor for some time: Would you get another chunk of energy out of it? Would you mind making a video about the details of the ANEEL fuel for CANDU reactors? I just learned in your video, that the pressure tubes are also made from zirconium - I just knew about the fuel cladding!
Yes Peter, I believe that is the secret to keeping the public engaged and informed on a platform like UA-cam. Simplification is such a powerful force, and I'm happy you've recognized that. Thanks!
That's great to know Khurrum! Share my channel with him, it might motivate him to become a UA-camr when he grows up :) appreciate you keeping up with the content!
Very much appreciate that Tariq! Why I love video platforms is because it increases accessibility to a larger group. It makes learning Nuclear science easier (all you need is an internet connection). However, a book is definitely on my bucket list!
So I'm just an ignorant layman with a moderate interest in nuclear energy, but I do have one question ( and forgive my ignorance if it's a dumb one), but can't the spent fuel be recycled instead of being sequestered away. I've heard that France recycles their fuel. Seems like a lost opportunity if you don't recycle the fuel.
Indeed you can. However since CANDU uses non-enriched uranium there isn't as much reactor grade plutonium remaining in the spent fuel. Enriched uranium on the other hand has a LOT more plutonium remaining, thus it can more easily be turned into MOX. You can recover the plutonium from CANDU, however it is an additional processing cost (not as cost beneficial as recycling spent PWR/BWR fuel). You would need to do an entire cost benefit analysis of the recycling and compare it against other alternatives.
Thanks for clearing that up. By the way, thanks for the channel. And thanks in continuing the education of the public about a very misunderstood topic.
Shadi, its my absolute pleasure. Grateful you got the chance to check out the video. Any thoughts on top topics that are relevant to CANDU that people would be interested in checking out?
At the start-up of the reactor where do the neutrons come from that are hitting natural uranium? If natural uranium(U238) doesn't fission, what does fission in this reactor? I'm obviously missing something.
CANDU reactors are the safest nuclear reactors in the world.......but how does it compare in operating costs.... AS CANDU is able to use DUPIC/MOX/HALUE fuel then that would be most interesting for the future as it would help deal with current spent nuclear fuel from BWR and PBR reactors.
That's nice but I would have preferred more in-depth stuff about the flow of fluids inside the fuel tubes and around them, the void coefficient even though it may be a sore spot for CANDU proponents and similar more technical stuff.
I agree Joe, it would be awesome for nations across the world to embrace the technology more widely. With the new CANDU monarch design, hopefully we will see more CANDU reactor builds across the world
Thanks so much Nadir! I think high quality video content on Nuclear science and especially reactor technologies is a gap we need to fill. Looking forward to pumping out more high quality content to promote education in this field
YES YES YES YES!!! This is glorious! I absolutely love it. It's a nice deep dive that I've wanted on the MIGHTY CANDU! I'll take more please. Also I really want one of those fuel bundles! I'm guessing Cameco won't be selling them to random people. I'd like to build a replica out of stainless steel. Can you ask them (Or if Cameco sees this) if we can take measurements to make a replica? We could build it to be like 5mm extra large in diameter or something to make sure it's understood that it's a replica.
Very good video. Clearly you are a fan of cando design. Around the world people are being told that we are not building reactors because they are dangerous and because of the problem with the waste. We both agree that te is untrue. The real reason is that there to expensive to build, please start talking more about cost and how we are triying to bring cost down.
Interesting reactor and a great explanation of how it works. What pressure does this reactor work at and what happens if those zirconium clad fuel pellets get to hot and start to outgas hydrogen?
No way Viperswhip! I didn't know that. If only we can mine it and use it locally in BC, that would be a great way to scale up the electric capacity in that region
Same logic as why energy isn't harnessed from a cars exhaust (it's not worth harnessing). Also, there might be ways to divert the extra heat toward heating other areas in the plant, however that would be an additional plant application. Also, spent fuel is removed from a reactor after its spent, since it's reached a point where its not effective at producing sufficient amount of energy (fissile amount is depleted)
@@OsamaBaig Thanks I guess that is all obvious though having you say it does drive home the reality. Seems like a great amount of wasted energy though small compared to the reactor at an operational level.
Could you please make a video explaining why Candu reactors have not been selling over the past several decades? Could explain as well why has it not been successfully sold to lots of other countries in Europe, MiddleEast and Africa that have attempted to purchase the Candu in the past. I have been quite curious about this? Thanks.
The reason why deals don't go through at times is due to a few reasons 1) Development of a regulatory body (You need a nuclear regulator that follows IAEA guidelines) 2) Cost (Many developing nations may want a reactor but have difficulties with financing it) 3) The country already has an unstable grid (no reliable electricity sources), thus the entire grid running on a unit or several units is not the best idea 4) The country simply doesn't have the domestic expertise to run a nuclear power reactor. It takes years for a workforce to develop this expertise (it doesnt happen overnight). It takes both investment and time. However, CANDU Reactors had been built in Romania, and may still have new prospects to build more units there. The story of Nuclear reactors not selling is not only unique to CANDU but also to the other designs. Only two countries had joined the "Nuclear Club" after Chernobyl, Romania and most recently UAE. In the recent decade you seem many other countries joining, such as Egypt and Bangladesh.
At the end of the day, many people would rather enrich uranium as it provides a simple pathway to bombs. 'Enriching,' water, to heavy water is a similar process but is no use at all for bombs. In short if you go the CANDU path you a relinquishing the possibility of using nuclear power technology to make nuclear bombs as a by product. This scenario has played out in recent decades in the ME.
Thank you for all of your videos, as they are super helpful all of these a pre-training for me. Before I am going to duty at Pickering Power Plant. I am an electrical engineer from China with design experience on AP1000. We do have some projects based on Chinese Candu but I am not professional with this kind of reactor. Would you mind giving me some suggestions on which Codes and Standards would be helpful also? Or I should read before going to Pickering? Thanks again🤜🤛
Congrats on the job at Pickering NPP! I think some really good resources would be to review CNSC regulatory documents online, they are all available in public. Also check out 1) CANTECH 2) Essential CANDU textbook. Those are my top recommendations for CANDU and Canadian industry learning ! Also my other videos those will help as well
This was simply fabuluous. I've been following the Decoupled, thank you Dr. Keefer, podcast and have been intriqued by the Candu reactor. How versitile is the Candu, meaning can this design be employed for a small modular reactor. Once again, wonderful explanation of the Candu reactor.
Edisoned, I believe the best way is to get a co-op or internship, especially if your a student. Alternatively, you can try to apply directly for full time jobs after you get your masters degree or another qualification. What are you studying specifically, and what types of jobs are you interested in? Maybe I can help guide you better
Thank you for another excellent video! And about one of my favourite reactor types too^^ This video needs more views/ likes. I have a small question pertaining the Non-Proliferation Act you mentioned. Isn't the CANDU at risk of running afoul of said Proliferation Act at some point, because of its on-power refuelling? If my memory serves me right, India and/ or Pakistan got their weapons grade plutonium through the (ab)use of a peaceful CANDU reactor, essentially turning it into a plutonium breeder with the help of its on-power refuelling capabilities. Please, correct me if I'm wrong on this. I'm always eager to learn new things. I do know that it was also the reason the Soviets insisted that the RBMK must have on-power refuelling. Yes, it makes electric power, but such a powerful reactor could also breed high-quality plutonium in large quantities at the same time. In the end I don't think they ever used it as such, but I do know that it most certainly was a design requirement which for the CANDU, of course, isn't the case at all. That is solely meant for peaceful use as a power reactor.
Fuel pellets are *not* the "size of a quarter" they are about the size of a "stack of quarters". They are not disks, they are cylinders. Also, "dime" is the better reference. They are between the size of a dime and a nickel. In fact you can tell that just from looking at the bundle you're holding.
At 21:47 you mention that reactors don't blow up but in many recreations of the Chernobyl disaster its often depicted and/or described like the reactor blew up. Is that just for the show or did it happen, if so i would love to know how/why? Amazing video btw 😄
Good question Project B. Nuclear power reactor fuel has a very low amount of fission product (The stuff that's active), the fuel is only 3-5% enriched, whereas nuclear weapons are 85% or more enriched. Its designed to slowly release energy overtime, rather than all at once (weapon). Also, reactor vessel and fuel assemblies are designed so that they don't "explode", rather the physics and safety analysis are design features built in to make sure it operates safely. However, when it comes to Cherrnobyl it was a "Steam explosion (only released 5% of the reactor core)" whereas a majority of the fuel stayed inside the reactor. This is considering that Chernobyl RBMK's didn't have concrete containment (which all other reactors have). Moreover, Nuclear reactors don't blow up technically like a nuclear weapon. Hope that makes sense
@@OsamaBaig Thank you for explaining! I'm currently only 15 with a large interest for energy politics and nuclear energy while dreaming of becoming a nuclear engineer in the future. So learning anything and everything about it enjoys me a lot 😄
Chernobyl and Fukushima Daichi diasters were all hydrogen explosion. As Osama pointed out the enrichment level of nuclear fuel in reactors cannot create bomb like explosion. The culprit is zirconium. Zirconium is used in the nuclear fuel rod casing. When exposed to high temperature steam, zirconium reacts with hot steam and give out hydrogen. It is those hydrogen caused the two explosions.
You can reprocess all you want, however you need permanent disposal for ILW and HLW. Deep geological repositories are built based on the burn up of fuel's, thus the more you utilize them the smaller footprint a DGR will have. However, it is a solution that is needed
@@OsamaBaig deeply (sorry) disagree that they're needed. Once you're actually recycling fuel and have either patience or fast neutron reactors, there is no "waste," just fuel and neutron absorbers.
Please share your thoughts on the aging pressure tubes in the candu reactors. A recent report stated the they have high levels of hydrogen and even blistering at the ends of the tubes.
If I'm allowed, I'll promote some cross-pollination between Osama's YT channel and Chris Keefer's Decouple channel by directing you here to this video which gives the reality-check on the fear-porn: ua-cam.com/video/AsyOG07UF1k/v-deo.html
Sir , going off topic, (God forbid) if Russia uses any nuclear weapon against Ukraine, then will it create more hate and taboo against nuclear related things ?
Ojasv, in all honesty the situation is changing very quick. Its also a political topic which my channel is not focused toward, thus I choose not to comment on this topic on public platforms. However, I'm sure others have opinions which they are welcome to share
I do belive that people will develop more "hete" towards nuclear related topics since it already is a really misunderstood topic. I do think most people currently and will be; scared of nuclear powerplants being used as "weapons" or for extortion.
PHWRs are wonderful machines and they have great potential features such as the possibility of using spent fuel from LWRs and exploiting energy from thorium in a closed fuel cycle. However, they are more expensive than the LWRs designs and it is difficult to design a PHWR larger than 1000 MWe.
PWHR's use natural uranium and also produce radiomedical isotopes which operating. I wonder if there is a complete breakdown for life cycle cost of CANDU versus PWR. There are next generation of CANDU designs such as the ACR-1000 or EC6 (Enhanced CANDU 6) , it has a lot of unique benefits, have you done research into that one?
@@OsamaBaig Yes, they use unenriched uranium but they also need more fuel given the low concentration of fissile material. The only think I know about Enhanced CANDU is that China is interested in building a couple of them to explore the possibility of using thorium and DUPIC. What I think is that our best hope to revive the nuclear industry worldwide is to "forget" futuristic IV gen. reactors and bet on existing technology: PWRs, BWRs ad PHWRs. Each of these three technologies has its own benefits and they all have room for improvements, it is much easier to improve an existing and well established technology than to bet on completely new designs. PWRs are the industry's workhorse, almost all of the reactors under construction are PWRs. But PWRs don't have a lot to be improved, perhaps they could be build with supercritical water but that is pretty much it. BWRs are simple and they have great room for improvement: they can be built relatively easily with supercritical water (to increase the thermal efficiency thereby reducing the fuel consumption) and/or they can be build with a reduced moderation configuration. Reduced moderation BWRs would increase the breeding ratio (they could get close to breeder reactors and the burn-up would increase) with uranium fuels or they could be use for thorium fuels (PWRs are not very good for thorium). I think that reduced moderation is a very interesting thing because it would produce great advantages from a well-known and well-established design. PHWRs have amazing features among which the possibility of using spent fuel from LWRs (HWRs are more expensive to build but the spent fuel from LWRs would be free thus improving the economics of the power plant) and capability of using thorium so that you would be able to differentiate the suppliers of fuel. Extremely interesting is the Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, which is a heavy water moderated and light boiling water reactor designed specifically to use thorium-plutonium fuels. Using plutonium-MOX fuels in LWRs with a relatively low neutron economy does not make much sense. Using the recovered plutonium in thorium fuels in HWRs is probably smarter. In my humble opinion, to revive the nuclear industry we should bet on existing technologies based on water reactors (with room for improvement). In the mean time it is a good idea, off course, to support R&D on IV gen. but these designs are a not even remotely close to be commercially available. If we really want to build 5000 GWe of nuclear energy across the globe in the next three decades (which is what we would need) there is little hope to do so with unproven technologies.
They may perform for longer periods of time, but its an entire life cycle cost and resource availability. You need to do extensive feasibility studies on whether its worth 1) Building specialized manufacturing facilities for the blended fuels 2) Supply chain cost for thorium and fissile material (how easy is it to transport in and availability) 3) Is is advantageous for the country to get access to this resource (for a country like Canada which has ample amounts of uranium it may not make sense) 4) Design changes required for reactors (you need to make adjustments to the reactor to burn different fuel sources)
@@OsamaBaig If I may point you to CleanCore/ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy-Enriched Life) Thorium+HALEU fuel that you just load'n'go into a CANDU. No design changes needed, just changes to operations procedures. ua-cam.com/video/nAUDuaqpVW8/v-deo.html A little bit of HALEU and a lot of thorium carefully distributed in the existing CANDU fuel bundle form-factor, and carefully distributed in and around the core, that potentially yields a 7-fold reduction in daily loading consumption (and thus SNF/HLW unloading). Proposed commercialisation in 2025 if supply chain for thorium & HALEU has been settled. Since most HALEU these days is ex Russia, here's hoping for some stabilising 'regime change' in that country before 2025!
You should do one on Thorium vs Uranium and the potential modification of Candu to use thorium and the up coming construction of the first Thorium reactor by Terrestial Energy.
Yes that sounds like a great topic. I wonder what type of modifications would need to be made to a CANDU reactor for it to use thorium blends. Maybe starting with a higher neutron source or other modifications to reactor control mechanisms
@@OsamaBaig Thorium is not uranium. Liquid source versus solid source. Liquid moderator versus solid moderator. All the crap risk of uranium are significantly reduced.
@@OsamaBaig Here is the coles notes on this. During the early days of nuclear reactor development, two major sources of materials were tried. Thorium and Uranium. Uranium was selected because it was able to generate lots of weapon's grade plutonium. The US and other military establishment then supported uranium reactors. The US actually built a Thorium reactor. So why do I bring it up. Thorium has these advantages over uranium. (BTW, I'm not a scientist but everyone can research this themselves in case I'm incorrect here). 1. Uranium is a limited resource vs Thorium is quite abundant. 2. Thorium has a much higher energy density compared to Uranium. 3. Thorium does NOT generated tons of long term radioactive waste. 4. Thorium cannot have a meltdown. Let me repeat. Cannot have a meltdown. 5. It does not require a giant expensive chamber to contain the radio active steam if things rupture because thorium is a self limiting reaction. If all the fail safes are turned off and it just runs, there is no chain reaction without feeding it, it will just cool off. The reactions slows down and stops. No china syndrome. 6. Highly scalable to create small modular reactors. 7. Can use existing old reactors and convert to safer thorium. 8. A very poor generator of weapons grade plutonium so no need to check if someone is using it for nefarious purposes. For planetary travel, we cannot bring a long a uranium processing plant to feed a nuclear reactor and energy sourcing is critical to survival. Solar will NOT work because all the planets beyond venus and mercury have very little usable Sun compare to earth. You would have to bring multiple times the amount of solar panels just to get the same energy. They will die. And forget wind, they will die. Thorium is abundant on the moon and mars. We will never run out. I would encourage everyone to just check out Thorium at least once. UA-cam Thorium vs Uranium.
My guy, u confused me. First u say the calandria holds 100s of pressure tubes inside (380-480), but right after that u say every pressure tube is inside a calandria tube with an annulus gap of 6mm. I'm lost. Is it only one big calandria, or hundreds of them for every pressure tube.
The Calandria and "Calandria tube" are completely different components. The Calandria is the large non-pressurized shell that houses all of the fuel channels. The Calandria tube and pressure tube is part of the fuel channel assembly. There are hundreds of fuel channels in the reactor. Hope that makes sense
The on-site emergency power generators are not powered by diesel, they are jet engines fueled by natural gas. Each 5MW and 6 per 4 pack, so 30MW installed capacity per 4 units. You forgot to mention another shutdown system, the moderator dump. It was only installed on the first 4 units ever built and was replaced by the liquid poison injection system as they determined the moderator removes about 20% of the decay heat when shutdown. So it was a poor idea to dump the moderator water away to shut down the reaction. The only operating units that has that system are Pickering A units 1+4. Units 5-8 and all of Bruce and Darlington. Units 1+4 were retrofitted with a system called dump arrest, which monitors the neutron flux upon shutdown and compares that to a trend of what the flux decay rate should be and if the flux isnt decaying fast enough, then the moderator will dump. Additionally, in the event of a LOBES, the shutdown cooling system will not be able to operate right away, so the heat transport pumps permit thermal syphoning and will free wheel to allow natural circulation of the heat through the heat transport system, thus cooling the reactor down.
I believe it's all about how you sell the reactor. The world of commercial management, relationship building, sales and other agreements. But it would definitely be nice to see a CANDU operating in the UK morrolandlawrence
Like everything about it. Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of the waste storage process? Seems like a lot of concrete and transportation required - not to mention all the energy required to operate such a storage facility. Not knocking it, just like to understand the entire C02 bean counting.
Sabine Hossenfelder has a great video on it. Short answer, the calculations vary a lot, but the while lifetime co2 is similar to things like wind power and solar. Potentially lower.
The CANDU system is excellent. Its proliferation resistant, and could safely power the world without green house gas, nor much waste. Its a great pity its not in much wider use.
Bad idea to use water as a coolant because of the pressure issues; EVERY failure of a nuclear facility has involved high pressure gases "exploding" tearing the facility apart. Best is to use molten salt and thorium MUCH SAFER and solves SO MANY problems; search for it.
OSAMA FAILED TO MENTION INDIA REGARDING CANDU REACTORS. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH OSAMA MISSING THIS FACT? INDIA IS NUMBER TWO OR NUMBER ONE WHEN IT COMES TO CANDU REACTORS. MENTIONS CHINA.
China's two CANDU are actual CANDU reactors. The ones in India are all expect one of them PWHR's hence why India wasn't mentioned as much as the other nations
Absolutely! CANDU's have liquid zone control, reactor buildings (a strong concrete containment), vaccum buildings, thermosyphoning capabilities and many other safety features
@@kasel1979krettnach It could be, I'm thinking of uploading these videos into a podcast style that might be helpful if your more comfortable with audio only
It's really funny that nobody say frankly that channel type reactors initially where made to quickly cycle uranium neutron bombardment to produce plutonium for bombs... Bwr and pwr are 100 percent designed to produce civil electricity... Candu was certainly proudly choosen for plutonium production saying to the public look all the advantages of that great design (and the plutonium capacity production for military use). If truly you want to make electricity Bwr and pwr are more cheap and more efficient. Your video is blabla
Wow, what an expensive, complicated, time consuming, inefficient process we created in the early 1900s. I look forward to Molten salt Thorium reactors or fast reacors that burn up all or almost all of the fuel instead of this insanity...
Dude, you ruined what could have been a very interesting video. I am an engineer and I even found it very hard to watch and process information herein. Too much video of you talking. Any useful clips of diagrams, process only show on screen for 4 seconds and then back to your talking head. You do not show a diagram at first of a whole Candu reactor labelling the buildings, then you do not show where the calandria is in a reactor building. Nor do you piece meal show the building up of a calandria with the double fuel and coolant flow tubes. You do not explain that the large tank of contained water is only a moderator and not coolant. You do not explain the temperature or pressure in the primary loop. You do not satifactorily show the steam generators, secondary loop or turbines. No where is the condensors and lake water. You also go so fast. It just left me with a spinning head.
This video isn't an Engineering course, rather a guide to learn about CANDU reactors. I've taken courses on CANDU plant operations, and this course took over 20 hours or more to go through. This is simply an overview and simplification of the processes for the general public/those interested in the industry to see and learn more
So many of these analogies are totally superfuous. There is no reason to convert a simple concept into a very shallowly related other simple concept. Even ignorant people don't benefit from that.
@@OsamaBaig That is true for analogies that actually explain something because the math that governs the behavior of both phenomena uses the same operators and configuration just with different scalar constants. But making poor analogies just causes people to model things incorrectly in their mind. To draw conclusions that are false.
Good and informative! Just some feedback, maybe try cut a little less. Some sentences are chopped up 6-7 times. There is basically no breathing room for you or the listener, it's a constant feed of words :) (also annoying to watch image jumping for every cut).
Like Don Rickles used to say “having trouble keeping up? Am I going too fast for you”. lol Just pause it or double click back etc. I do it all the time, maybe cause I’m so friggin old.
As a romanian, I find this video very useful since Romania is one of the few countries (other than Canada) which uses CANDU reactors, really helpful to see how my country's nuclear reactors work!
Romania made a wise decision
The Cernavoda reactor has run very well, I believe
Vai de capul nostru
And now Bruce power is expanding the CANDU by another 4.8 GW! Awesome!
Great news
Absolutely incredible announcement!
Great explanation. I spent most of my career working in a CANDU station. I live within 25 K of the station and feel perfectly safe.
Great to see a fellow CANDU lover checking out the content! Thank you for your years of service Mike!
This is probably of my longest recent videos on this channels! Would love to get your feedback on other Ultimate guides that I can potentially do next!
Safety systems are so interesting! It would be awesome if you did a video series on them.
I also seem to recall you saying your video on the most common reactor types was very simplified - an in-depth series about that would also be great!
If you don't already have a video on your channel about them a video about molten fuel reactors would also be very interesting.
Just discovered this awesome channel! I would love to see content on Canada's medical isotope production, and fast reactors, and fuel cycle possibilities with CANDUs. I heard CANDUs can run as breeders and burn a variety of fuels? Would love to hear more about fuel possibilities and fuel life cycles in general(like reprocessing capabilities etc). Thanks!
No idea, just found you tonight. Fantastic work, very informative.
Heh. Back in the early Eighties we sent a mechanic to the Pickering NGS to repair a forklift. During the radiation check on the way out they found radioactive traces on his pants. He was terrified they were going to send him back to his truck wearing his underwear at one point…
Been in love with these since I was a kid and my dad took me to visit Chalk River. Learning our country is a world leader in nuclear engineering made me really proud of what we can do.
And then as I grew-up I learned how much CANDU is an exemplary case of “doing it right” in so many ways. I probably should have gone into nuclear engineering, but at least I can advocate for them. I’ve educated many fellow Canadians about how amazing these are and emphasized how we really should be building more.
They’re just built different, in the best way. Learning all the lessons possible from NRX has paid-off.
Edit: Five-hour video about CANDU safety systems please. :>
Man, this channel is highly underrated! Good Job man!
Thank you so much for your kind words!
I love that Canada has such a can-do attitude!!
Glad you love the CANDU attitude as well!
Great work Osama! This material serves as a excellent intro for upcoming nuclear engineering students at our beloved Ontario Tech University 's. This presentation could certainly add value to potential engineers in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and a good resource refresher for nuclear engineering young professionals. Keep up the good work, I appreciated the detailed explanations and the "techno-info-edutainment" approach. I look forward to more content. Kudos!
Truly appreciate your heart warming message, especially coming from you Craige who have been one of my favorite instructors at Ontario tech!
Moltex Energy is building a reactor at Point Lepreau in Canada. It will take spent CANDU fuel and extract the 95% energy that the original reactor cannot use. It can work with any ceramic spent fuel.
Using spent fuel from CANDU reactors is definitely a remarkable project!
Great content well presented. The messy bit about selling and building CANDUs worldwide has a bit to do with SNC. Remember them🥴? Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) sold the engineering and construction rights to SNC 2011 for a pittance. The safety track record of CANDU is superb and the additional ability to burn “spent fuel” is another big bonus.
I operate the heavy water upgraders and the common unit, ECI, NPC. Its a lot of fun. We have jet engines and diesels for backup at our site.
Nice! Great to know you have such valuable experiences
Need to get Rob Schneider to promote these: "You CANDU it!"
Hahaha yessss, that would be hilarious Robert
Osama, just got to know your work "spreading the Nuclear word"! What a great collection! Started with the Candu and can't stop! Thanks for all the work put into these!
You can handle LEU, prior to irradiation too. The new bundles used in light water rx are enriched between 1-4ish% u235 and they are shipped and inspected without shielding.
Thank you for educating the masses on nuclear power.
I lived next to the first candu growing up and it had an information room teaching you all about it with a tour.
No way! Nice, was this the Pickering nuclear station?
@@OsamaBaig Yeah. They had models of the inside of the reactor that showed you how it worked. The whole process of refuelling and everything.
Nice video. Thank you. Just one comment: when you talk about the safety systems, when you mention SDS#1 with the 28 cadmium rods (shut-off rods) please make sure you do not create confusion by referring to control rods and adjuster rods. I noticed this also in your video "CANDU Reactor Explained in 5 minutes" - when you draw, you should write shut-off rods instead of adjuster / control rods. In technical terms, we make a distinction between the control function in normal operation and the fast shutdown action of SDS#1 (which has no role in normal operation, but just in transients and accidents). I am sure you know this already. For a layman it makes no difference (and I guess this is why you presented things this way), but for us in the nuclear industry it is important, if we want to use your videos in a professional setting.
In operations there is a clear distinction between control rods, which are adjusters and absorbers. However, this video is not aimed toward operations training. Its a introductory video for those new to the nuclear industry or interested in learning about concepts relevant to CANDU. "The Essential CANDU" by UNENE also uses these phrases interchangeably (shutdown & control rods) to help simplify concepts (Section 2.7, point#3: unene.ca/essentialcandu/pdf/13%20-%20Reactor%20Safety%20Design%20and%20Safety%20Analysis.pdf). Whether it be solely industry or general public, in order to understand complex topics you need to be introduced to terms one by one. Happy to make another video solely on the topic of control rods/adjusters/absorbers/shutdown rods if you wish. Are you a representative from the Romanian Nuclear industry? Maybe we can connect via email and see how we can build these resources together. My email is osama.baig@ontariotechu.net
Man great video, going to check out more of your channel! Work at Pickering and there is so much that goes into Fuel Handling, it's super cool. OPG should play this video during some of the training classes.
Yess I highly encourage that. Training instructors at Nuclear utilities and vendors are all encouraged to use this content. Its free, its high quality and it can provide a lot of value to those that are onboarding in the industry
Hi Andrew, U also work at OPG Pickering? Do you work there for a long time? I am in background checking now and still waiting for the final Job offer. Do you have any experience with how they were going to train the fresh gays?
Would you mind giving me some advice also?
Thanks so much :)
The acronym "CANDU", a registered trademark of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, stands for “Canada Deuterium Uranium”.
Can someone help me here -- I seem to be misunderstanding a portion of this.
The uranium/ceramic pellets inside the calandria tubes....naturally create a fission process and create energy..causing the heavy water(which is water with Deauterium added into it?) surrounding the calandria tubes, this gets the tubes (made of zirconium) to get hot and boil the heavy water which then releases non-radiation steam, driving the turbines etc etc....
OR are the inside of the calandria tubes (with the pellets) filled with water?.... sorry...VERY new into this knowledge - it is a LOT to understand and learn (esp as an older adult).. maybe I am just simple lol
thanks in advance - love this fellas channel. Cheers from T.O.
Great video im just learning about Canadian nuclear programs, designs, plants and future progress and this is super informational. I had no idea of Canadas contribution to nuclear power generation.
Glad you are getting the chance to do research on Canada's nuclear industry, indeed it is a phenomenal industry. I've made a few videos on some reactor tours recently, vlogs specifically. Hope you get a chance to check those out
Great video about a great reactor design. Does Canada require "waste" to be stored in a manner where it can be recovered for reprocessing in the future?
Thanks a lot. Deuterium is quit differcult to make and expensive. How much deuterium is needed for Calandria reactor vessel approximatly?
250 000 L.
Hi Osama!
Another great video, thanks for providing that!
What if you stored a used fuel bundle for a while to wait for some neutron poisons to decay and then put it back into the reactor for some time: Would you get another chunk of energy out of it?
Would you mind making a video about the details of the ANEEL fuel for CANDU reactors?
I just learned in your video, that the pressure tubes are also made from zirconium - I just knew about the fuel cladding!
To be a video with quickly delivered and light-to-digest nuclear facts, it was also surprisingly accurate. Nice 👍
Yes Peter, I believe that is the secret to keeping the public engaged and informed on a platform like UA-cam. Simplification is such a powerful force, and I'm happy you've recognized that. Thanks!
Youre awsome bro. I love nerding out on this stuff.
Nice explaination. Your video also reminds me one of kid in our family who has the ability to memorize whole course books.
That's great to know Khurrum! Share my channel with him, it might motivate him to become a UA-camr when he grows up :) appreciate you keeping up with the content!
Excellent video. Well done. Proud of my country’s nuclear industry
Osama, in my opinion you are ready to start writing text books
God bless
Very much appreciate that Tariq! Why I love video platforms is because it increases accessibility to a larger group. It makes learning Nuclear science easier (all you need is an internet connection). However, a book is definitely on my bucket list!
So I'm just an ignorant layman with a moderate interest in nuclear energy, but I do have one question ( and forgive my ignorance if it's a dumb one), but can't the spent fuel be recycled instead of being sequestered away. I've heard that France recycles their fuel. Seems like a lost opportunity if you don't recycle the fuel.
Indeed you can. However since CANDU uses non-enriched uranium there isn't as much reactor grade plutonium remaining in the spent fuel. Enriched uranium on the other hand has a LOT more plutonium remaining, thus it can more easily be turned into MOX. You can recover the plutonium from CANDU, however it is an additional processing cost (not as cost beneficial as recycling spent PWR/BWR fuel). You would need to do an entire cost benefit analysis of the recycling and compare it against other alternatives.
Thanks for clearing that up. By the way, thanks for the channel. And thanks in continuing the education of the public about a very misunderstood topic.
@@hankrearden20bro here in India we are also reprocessing the spend natural fuels
Great work Osama and thank you as always for sharing the knowledge.
Shadi, its my absolute pleasure. Grateful you got the chance to check out the video. Any thoughts on top topics that are relevant to CANDU that people would be interested in checking out?
At the start-up of the reactor where do the neutrons come from that are hitting natural uranium? If natural uranium(U238) doesn't fission, what does fission in this reactor? I'm obviously missing something.
CANDU reactors are the safest nuclear reactors in the world.......but how does it compare in operating costs.... AS CANDU is able to use DUPIC/MOX/HALUE fuel then that would be most interesting for the future as it would help deal with current spent nuclear fuel from BWR and PBR reactors.
Excellent video Osama! Thanks for putting together and sharing!
Its my absolute pleasure Doug, really appreciate you checking it out!
That's nice but I would have preferred more in-depth stuff about the flow of fluids inside the fuel tubes and around them, the void coefficient even though it may be a sore spot for CANDU proponents and similar more technical stuff.
Excellent video. CANDU reactors should be in much greater use...
I agree Joe, it would be awesome for nations across the world to embrace the technology more widely. With the new CANDU monarch design, hopefully we will see more CANDU reactor builds across the world
SUCH GREAT QUALITY CONTENT,WOW amazing job man! You've earned a new loyal sub
Thanks so much Nadir! I think high quality video content on Nuclear science and especially reactor technologies is a gap we need to fill. Looking forward to pumping out more high quality content to promote education in this field
How does a Candu have a reasonable conversion with thorium, won't the protactiniums long half mess up the neutron economy?
That's a great question, any thorium experts watching this video know the answer to the question?
YES YES YES YES!!! This is glorious! I absolutely love it. It's a nice deep dive that I've wanted on the MIGHTY CANDU! I'll take more please. Also I really want one of those fuel bundles! I'm guessing Cameco won't be selling them to random people. I'd like to build a replica out of stainless steel. Can you ask them (Or if Cameco sees this) if we can take measurements to make a replica? We could build it to be like 5mm extra large in diameter or something to make sure it's understood that it's a replica.
Very good video. Clearly you are a fan of cando design. Around the world people are being told that we are not building reactors because they are dangerous and because of the problem with the waste. We both agree that te is untrue. The real reason is that there to expensive to build, please start talking more about cost and how we are triying to bring cost down.
Interesting reactor and a great explanation of how it works. What pressure does this reactor work at and what happens if those zirconium clad fuel pellets get to hot and start to outgas hydrogen?
We have Uranium in the Okanagan in British Columbia but there is a ban on mining it lol
No way Viperswhip! I didn't know that. If only we can mine it and use it locally in BC, that would be a great way to scale up the electric capacity in that region
Can you tell us, if you plese the reason of being interested in this field , is it related to your degree or just you like it?
Why isn't the energy from spent fuel pools harnessed? If the spent fuel is so energetic why is it removed from the reactor?
Same logic as why energy isn't harnessed from a cars exhaust (it's not worth harnessing). Also, there might be ways to divert the extra heat toward heating other areas in the plant, however that would be an additional plant application. Also, spent fuel is removed from a reactor after its spent, since it's reached a point where its not effective at producing sufficient amount of energy (fissile amount is depleted)
@@OsamaBaig Thanks I guess that is all obvious though having you say it does drive home the reality. Seems like a great amount of wasted energy though small compared to the reactor at an operational level.
Could you please make a video explaining why Candu reactors have not been selling over the past several decades? Could explain as well why has it not been successfully sold to lots of other countries in Europe, MiddleEast and Africa that have attempted to purchase the Candu in the past. I have been quite curious about this? Thanks.
The reason why deals don't go through at times is due to a few reasons 1) Development of a regulatory body (You need a nuclear regulator that follows IAEA guidelines) 2) Cost (Many developing nations may want a reactor but have difficulties with financing it) 3) The country already has an unstable grid (no reliable electricity sources), thus the entire grid running on a unit or several units is not the best idea 4) The country simply doesn't have the domestic expertise to run a nuclear power reactor. It takes years for a workforce to develop this expertise (it doesnt happen overnight). It takes both investment and time.
However, CANDU Reactors had been built in Romania, and may still have new prospects to build more units there. The story of Nuclear reactors not selling is not only unique to CANDU but also to the other designs. Only two countries had joined the "Nuclear Club" after Chernobyl, Romania and most recently UAE. In the recent decade you seem many other countries joining, such as Egypt and Bangladesh.
At the end of the day, many people would rather enrich uranium as it provides a simple pathway to bombs.
'Enriching,' water, to heavy water is a similar process but is no use at all for bombs.
In short if you go the CANDU path you a relinquishing the possibility of using nuclear power technology to make nuclear bombs as a by product.
This scenario has played out in recent decades in the ME.
Please comment on the positive reactivity coefficient of candu.
This is great bro. Thanks and good job.
where did you get the fuel bundle model?
Generously given to me by camcoe!
Thank you for all of your videos, as they are super helpful all of these a pre-training for me. Before I am going to duty at Pickering Power Plant. I am an electrical engineer from China with design experience on AP1000. We do have some projects based on Chinese Candu but I am not professional with this kind of reactor.
Would you mind giving me some suggestions on which Codes and Standards would be helpful also? Or I should read before going to Pickering?
Thanks again🤜🤛
Congrats on the job at Pickering NPP! I think some really good resources would be to review CNSC regulatory documents online, they are all available in public. Also check out 1) CANTECH 2) Essential CANDU textbook. Those are my top recommendations for CANDU and Canadian industry learning ! Also my other videos those will help as well
@@OsamaBaig Thanks again：）
Hi Osama - I love your videos. Are you able to provide a source to the NFB video you used called “On-Power Refueling”
This was simply fabuluous. I've been following the Decoupled, thank you Dr. Keefer, podcast and have been intriqued by the Candu reactor. How versitile is the Candu, meaning can this design be employed for a small modular reactor. Once again, wonderful explanation of the Candu reactor.
Fascinating video. I learned a lot.
Thanks Superstrik9, happy you found value in the video!
Great video. Can you do a video about 4th generation NR, and how they could impact the public perception about NPP. Keep up the good job.
Its a ultimate learning. I am a renewable energy student in canada 🇨🇦. How to go into nuclear field.
Edisoned, I believe the best way is to get a co-op or internship, especially if your a student. Alternatively, you can try to apply directly for full time jobs after you get your masters degree or another qualification. What are you studying specifically, and what types of jobs are you interested in? Maybe I can help guide you better
I’m just grateful that other Osama didn’t have this level of nuclear physics
Thank you for another excellent video! And about one of my favourite reactor types too^^ This video needs more views/ likes.
I have a small question pertaining the Non-Proliferation Act you mentioned. Isn't the CANDU at risk of running afoul of said Proliferation Act at some point, because of its on-power refuelling? If my memory serves me right, India and/ or Pakistan got their weapons grade plutonium through the (ab)use of a peaceful CANDU reactor, essentially turning it into a plutonium breeder with the help of its on-power refuelling capabilities. Please, correct me if I'm wrong on this. I'm always eager to learn new things.
I do know that it was also the reason the Soviets insisted that the RBMK must have on-power refuelling. Yes, it makes electric power, but such a powerful reactor could also breed high-quality plutonium in large quantities at the same time. In the end I don't think they ever used it as such, but I do know that it most certainly was a design requirement which for the CANDU, of course, isn't the case at all. That is solely meant for peaceful use as a power reactor.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much!
Great explanation. Thanks
Fuel pellets are *not* the "size of a quarter" they are about the size of a "stack of quarters". They are not disks, they are cylinders. Also, "dime" is the better reference. They are between the size of a dime and a nickel. In fact you can tell that just from looking at the bundle you're holding.
Does the poison ruin the heavy water?
Good question, no it doesn't. It is filtered out through ion exchange columns that have resin inside. Thus cleaning the heavy water moderator
Super. Ty
Appreciate you checking out the video!
At 21:47 you mention that reactors don't blow up but in many recreations of the Chernobyl disaster its often depicted and/or described like the reactor blew up. Is that just for the show or did it happen, if so i would love to know how/why?
Amazing video btw 😄
Good question Project B. Nuclear power reactor fuel has a very low amount of fission product (The stuff that's active), the fuel is only 3-5% enriched, whereas nuclear weapons are 85% or more enriched. Its designed to slowly release energy overtime, rather than all at once (weapon). Also, reactor vessel and fuel assemblies are designed so that they don't "explode", rather the physics and safety analysis are design features built in to make sure it operates safely. However, when it comes to Cherrnobyl it was a "Steam explosion (only released 5% of the reactor core)" whereas a majority of the fuel stayed inside the reactor. This is considering that Chernobyl RBMK's didn't have concrete containment (which all other reactors have). Moreover, Nuclear reactors don't blow up technically like a nuclear weapon. Hope that makes sense
@@OsamaBaig Thank you for explaining!
I'm currently only 15 with a large interest for energy politics and nuclear energy while dreaming of becoming a nuclear engineer in the future. So learning anything and everything about it enjoys me a lot 😄
Chernobyl and Fukushima Daichi diasters were all hydrogen explosion. As Osama pointed out the enrichment level of nuclear fuel in reactors cannot create bomb like explosion. The culprit is zirconium. Zirconium is used in the nuclear fuel rod casing. When exposed to high temperature steam, zirconium reacts with hot steam and give out hydrogen. It is those hydrogen caused the two explosions.
@@catchnkill Thank you for explaining it even more for me!
Please video about nuclear waste process and storage
At some point, can you please do a video on the wastefulness of DGRs when fuel reprocessing would be so much better an idea?
You can reprocess all you want, however you need permanent disposal for ILW and HLW. Deep geological repositories are built based on the burn up of fuel's, thus the more you utilize them the smaller footprint a DGR will have. However, it is a solution that is needed
@@OsamaBaig deeply (sorry) disagree that they're needed. Once you're actually recycling fuel and have either patience or fast neutron reactors, there is no "waste," just fuel and neutron absorbers.
Please share your thoughts on the aging pressure tubes in the candu reactors. A recent report stated the they have high levels of hydrogen and even blistering at the ends of the tubes.
If I'm allowed, I'll promote some cross-pollination between Osama's YT channel and Chris Keefer's Decouple channel by directing you here to this video which gives the reality-check on the fear-porn: ua-cam.com/video/AsyOG07UF1k/v-deo.html
Look up the Decouple Podcast episode concerning the hydride cracking.
Sir , going off topic, (God forbid) if Russia uses any nuclear weapon against Ukraine, then will it create more hate and taboo against nuclear related things ?
Ojasv, in all honesty the situation is changing very quick. Its also a political topic which my channel is not focused toward, thus I choose not to comment on this topic on public platforms. However, I'm sure others have opinions which they are welcome to share
I do belive that people will develop more "hete" towards nuclear related topics since it already is a really misunderstood topic. I do think most people currently and will be; scared of nuclear powerplants being used as "weapons" or for extortion.
Background in the nuclear engineering? If so, I am worried, especially by comments full of admiration...
PHWRs are wonderful machines and they have great potential features such as the possibility of using spent fuel from LWRs and exploiting energy from thorium in a closed fuel cycle. However, they are more expensive than the LWRs designs and it is difficult to design a PHWR larger than 1000 MWe.
PWHR's use natural uranium and also produce radiomedical isotopes which operating. I wonder if there is a complete breakdown for life cycle cost of CANDU versus PWR. There are next generation of CANDU designs such as the ACR-1000 or EC6 (Enhanced CANDU 6) , it has a lot of unique benefits, have you done research into that one?
@@OsamaBaig Yes, they use unenriched uranium but they also need more fuel given the low concentration of fissile material.
The only think I know about Enhanced CANDU is that China is interested in building a couple of them to explore the possibility of using thorium and DUPIC.
What I think is that our best hope to revive the nuclear industry worldwide is to "forget" futuristic IV gen. reactors and bet on existing technology: PWRs, BWRs ad PHWRs. Each of these three technologies has its own benefits and they all have room for improvements, it is much easier to improve an existing and well established technology than to bet on completely new designs.
PWRs are the industry's workhorse, almost all of the reactors under construction are PWRs. But PWRs don't have a lot to be improved, perhaps they could be build with supercritical water but that is pretty much it.
BWRs are simple and they have great room for improvement: they can be built relatively easily with supercritical water (to increase the thermal efficiency thereby reducing the fuel consumption) and/or they can be build with a reduced moderation configuration. Reduced moderation BWRs would increase the breeding ratio (they could get close to breeder reactors and the burn-up would increase) with uranium fuels or they could be use for thorium fuels (PWRs are not very good for thorium). I think that reduced moderation is a very interesting thing because it would produce great advantages from a well-known and well-established design.
PHWRs have amazing features among which the possibility of using spent fuel from LWRs (HWRs are more expensive to build but the spent fuel from LWRs would be free thus improving the economics of the power plant) and capability of using thorium so that you would be able to differentiate the suppliers of fuel. Extremely interesting is the Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, which is a heavy water moderated and light boiling water reactor designed specifically to use thorium-plutonium fuels. Using plutonium-MOX fuels in LWRs with a relatively low neutron economy does not make much sense. Using the recovered plutonium in thorium fuels in HWRs is probably smarter.
In my humble opinion, to revive the nuclear industry we should bet on existing technologies based on water reactors (with room for improvement). In the mean time it is a good idea, off course, to support R&D on IV gen. but these designs are a not even remotely close to be commercially available. If we really want to build 5000 GWe of nuclear energy across the globe in the next three decades (which is what we would need) there is little hope to do so with unproven technologies.
RBMK had tubes too.
a great design
Definitely an exceptional design, the safety, performance and flexibility of fuel usage. Glad you feel the same way Tgspartnership
Saw another video recently, that thorium uranium mix fuel performs longer than the standard CANDU fuel.
They may perform for longer periods of time, but its an entire life cycle cost and resource availability. You need to do extensive feasibility studies on whether its worth 1) Building specialized manufacturing facilities for the blended fuels 2) Supply chain cost for thorium and fissile material (how easy is it to transport in and availability) 3) Is is advantageous for the country to get access to this resource (for a country like Canada which has ample amounts of uranium it may not make sense) 4) Design changes required for reactors (you need to make adjustments to the reactor to burn different fuel sources)
@@OsamaBaig If I may point you to CleanCore/ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy-Enriched Life) Thorium+HALEU fuel that you just load'n'go into a CANDU. No design changes needed, just changes to operations procedures.
ua-cam.com/video/nAUDuaqpVW8/v-deo.html
A little bit of HALEU and a lot of thorium carefully distributed in the existing CANDU fuel bundle form-factor, and carefully distributed in and around the core, that potentially yields a 7-fold reduction in daily loading consumption (and thus SNF/HLW unloading). Proposed commercialisation in 2025 if supply chain for thorium & HALEU has been settled. Since most HALEU these days is ex Russia, here's hoping for some stabilising 'regime change' in that country before 2025!
You should do one on Thorium vs Uranium and the potential modification of Candu to use thorium and the up coming construction of the first Thorium reactor by Terrestial Energy.
Yes that sounds like a great topic. I wonder what type of modifications would need to be made to a CANDU reactor for it to use thorium blends. Maybe starting with a higher neutron source or other modifications to reactor control mechanisms
@@OsamaBaig Thorium is not uranium. Liquid source versus solid source. Liquid moderator versus solid moderator. All the crap risk of uranium are significantly reduced.
@@OsamaBaig Here is the coles notes on this. During the early days of nuclear reactor development, two major sources of materials were tried. Thorium and Uranium. Uranium was selected because it was able to generate lots of weapon's grade plutonium. The US and other military establishment then supported uranium reactors. The US actually built a Thorium reactor. So why do I bring it up. Thorium has these advantages over uranium. (BTW, I'm not a scientist but everyone can research this themselves in case I'm incorrect here). 1. Uranium is a limited resource vs Thorium is quite abundant. 2. Thorium has a much higher energy density compared to Uranium. 3. Thorium does NOT generated tons of long term radioactive waste. 4. Thorium cannot have a meltdown. Let me repeat. Cannot have a meltdown. 5. It does not require a giant expensive chamber to contain the radio active steam if things rupture because thorium is a self limiting reaction. If all the fail safes are turned off and it just runs, there is no chain reaction without feeding it, it will just cool off. The reactions slows down and stops. No china syndrome. 6. Highly scalable to create small modular reactors. 7. Can use existing old reactors and convert to safer thorium. 8. A very poor generator of weapons grade plutonium so no need to check if someone is using it for nefarious purposes.
For planetary travel, we cannot bring a long a uranium processing plant to feed a nuclear reactor and energy sourcing is critical to survival. Solar will NOT work because all the planets beyond venus and mercury have very little usable Sun compare to earth. You would have to bring multiple times the amount of solar panels just to get the same energy. They will die. And forget wind, they will die. Thorium is abundant on the moon and mars. We will never run out. I would encourage everyone to just check out Thorium at least once. UA-cam Thorium vs Uranium.
My guy, u confused me. First u say the calandria holds 100s of pressure tubes inside (380-480), but right after that u say every pressure tube is inside a calandria tube with an annulus gap of 6mm. I'm lost. Is it only one big calandria, or hundreds of them for every pressure tube.
The Calandria and "Calandria tube" are completely different components. The Calandria is the large non-pressurized shell that houses all of the fuel channels. The Calandria tube and pressure tube is part of the fuel channel assembly. There are hundreds of fuel channels in the reactor. Hope that makes sense
@@OsamaBaig that clarifies a lot better. thanks
The on-site emergency power generators are not powered by diesel, they are jet engines fueled by natural gas. Each 5MW and 6 per 4 pack, so 30MW installed capacity per 4 units. You forgot to mention another shutdown system, the moderator dump. It was only installed on the first 4 units ever built and was replaced by the liquid poison injection system as they determined the moderator removes about 20% of the decay heat when shutdown. So it was a poor idea to dump the moderator water away to shut down the reaction. The only operating units that has that system are Pickering A units 1+4. Units 5-8 and all of Bruce and Darlington. Units 1+4 were retrofitted with a system called dump arrest, which monitors the neutron flux upon shutdown and compares that to a trend of what the flux decay rate should be and if the flux isnt decaying fast enough, then the moderator will dump. Additionally, in the event of a LOBES, the shutdown cooling system will not be able to operate right away, so the heat transport pumps permit thermal syphoning and will free wheel to allow natural circulation of the heat through the heat transport system, thus cooling the reactor down.
I really hope the if Pierre gets into office he’ll hold up his promise and expand our nuclear reactors and also start exporting it around the world.
makes you wonder why the UK is going for other designs.
I believe it's all about how you sell the reactor. The world of commercial management, relationship building, sales and other agreements. But it would definitely be nice to see a CANDU operating in the UK morrolandlawrence
Hands up if you've ever done an annulus gas purge?
Like everything about it. Has anyone calculated the carbon footprint of the waste storage process? Seems like a lot of concrete and transportation required - not to mention all the energy required to operate such a storage facility. Not knocking it, just like to understand the entire C02 bean counting.
Sabine Hossenfelder has a great video on it. Short answer, the calculations vary a lot, but the while lifetime co2 is similar to things like wind power and solar. Potentially lower.
everybody keeps talking about solar power, and wind, and and and. But in my opinion, nuclear power is still the best alternative.
Micro Thorium Geothermal/hydro reactor
The CANDU system is excellent. Its proliferation resistant, and could safely power the world without green house gas, nor much waste.
Its a great pity its not in much wider use.
Very true, its a phenomenal reactor type
Bad idea to use water as a coolant because of the pressure issues; EVERY failure of a nuclear facility has involved high pressure gases "exploding" tearing the facility apart.
Best is to use molten salt and thorium MUCH SAFER and solves SO MANY problems; search for it.
OSAMA FAILED TO MENTION INDIA REGARDING CANDU REACTORS. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH OSAMA MISSING THIS FACT? INDIA IS NUMBER TWO OR NUMBER ONE WHEN IT COMES TO CANDU REACTORS. MENTIONS CHINA.
China's two CANDU are actual CANDU reactors. The ones in India are all expect one of them PWHR's hence why India wasn't mentioned as much as the other nations
Candu is a safer, more modern and horizontal RBMK lol.
Absolutely! CANDU's have liquid zone control, reactor buildings (a strong concrete containment), vaccum buildings, thermosyphoning capabilities and many other safety features
your hands jump 😮 get a bit headache from that
Sorrry about that Andreas, its normal for educationalish youtubers like myself. Also, I like to speak with my hands, its fun!
@@OsamaBaig is it some kind of cutting effect ?
@@kasel1979krettnach It could be, I'm thinking of uploading these videos into a podcast style that might be helpful if your more comfortable with audio only
It's really funny that nobody say frankly that channel type reactors initially where made to quickly cycle uranium neutron bombardment to produce plutonium for bombs... Bwr and pwr are 100 percent designed to produce civil electricity... Candu was certainly proudly choosen for plutonium production saying to the public look all the advantages of that great design (and the plutonium capacity production for military use). If truly you want to make electricity Bwr and pwr are more cheap and more efficient. Your video is blabla
CANDU criminally neglected!
It honestly is Angelica! Would love to see more of these built across Canada
At 02:18 i just stoped watching beacuse now i know how candu reactor works and i don't need you anymore
Fantastic content. However the jerky video editing of the narrator makes the video difficult to watch. Please please drop this for future work.
Wow, what an expensive, complicated, time consuming, inefficient process we created in the early 1900s. I look forward to Molten salt Thorium reactors or fast reacors that burn up all or almost all of the fuel instead of this insanity...
The snapping is really annoying.
Its a nice video but the guys doesn’t give good reasoning
Dude, you ruined what could have been a very interesting video. I am an engineer and I even found it very hard to watch and process information herein. Too much video of you talking. Any useful clips of diagrams, process only show on screen for 4 seconds and then back to your talking head. You do not show a diagram at first of a whole Candu reactor labelling the buildings, then you do not show where the calandria is in a reactor building. Nor do you piece meal show the building up of a calandria with the double fuel and coolant flow tubes. You do not explain that the large tank of contained water is only a moderator and not coolant. You do not explain the temperature or pressure in the primary loop. You do not satifactorily show the steam generators, secondary loop or turbines.
No where is the condensors and lake water. You also go so fast. It just left me with a spinning head.
This video isn't an Engineering course, rather a guide to learn about CANDU reactors. I've taken courses on CANDU plant operations, and this course took over 20 hours or more to go through. This is simply an overview and simplification of the processes for the general public/those interested in the industry to see and learn more
So many of these analogies are totally superfuous. There is no reason to convert a simple concept into a very shallowly related other simple concept. Even ignorant people don't benefit from that.
Simplifying concepts really does help those new to the industry or those that are generally interested in concepts learn a lot!
@@OsamaBaig That is true for analogies that actually explain something because the math that governs the behavior of both phenomena uses the same operators and configuration just with different scalar constants.
But making poor analogies just causes people to model things incorrectly in their mind. To draw conclusions that are false.
A Tesla doesn't have any fuel economy.
Good and informative! Just some feedback, maybe try cut a little less. Some sentences are chopped up 6-7 times. There is basically no breathing room for you or the listener, it's a constant feed of words :) (also annoying to watch image jumping for every cut).
Like Don Rickles used to say “having trouble keeping up? Am I going too fast for you”. lol
Just pause it or double click back etc. I do it all the time, maybe cause I’m so friggin old.
I'd like to know why you are in such in a hurry??? It's a mistery !!!!
Awesome and very informative thank you Osama for a great video 2 tumps up 👍👍
It's my absolute pleasure thank you so much
Dude nuclear is dead but welcome to the party 30 years late. 🎉 I'm sure this time the design is actually safe 😂 bring on fusion!!
на рбмк тоже круглые твелы