Update on Decommissioning and Nuclear Waste Management Research Collaborative Projects with Canadian Universities

Abstract

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has established a Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) program through the University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering (UNENE) to collaborate with Canadian universities since late 2015. The program leverages the resources of the UNENE and Alliance Grant funding from the Federal Government (through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)) to investigate key technical areas that would both advance and benefit decommissioning activities and nuclear waste management. The program also aims to utilize the potential for high payoff during decommissioning to reduce radiological hazards, lower decommissioning costs, and overall optimize the management of OPG’s nuclear liabilities. Currently, the program is in its third funding cycle. The program has several ongoing and new Collaborative Research Projects with three Canadian universities to address technical aspects of decommissioning, such as:

• Development of advanced techniques for the detection and capture of low energy/low range radioactive species;
• Localized decontamination technology evaluation;
• Optimized Graphene Oxide membrane for the filtration of tritiated heavy water;
• Digitization and asset information modelling to support nuclear power plant decommissioning.

This paper provides an update of the status and preliminary results of the Collaborative Research Projects, as well as to identify any future directions and challenges.