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Research & Development
Conexus invests millions of dollars in joint Research and Development projects and manages hundreds of work packages every year. New programs are continually considered, and member company employees can nominate projects for inclusion.

Each program is led by a Program Manager, with technical direction provided by a Technical/Steering committee from member organizations. Additional expertise may come from suppliers, universities or working groups.

Research and Development enables members to share the risks, costs, and rewards of projects across the following five core areas:

  • Fuel Channels: Focuses on improving and setting standards for the fitness-for-service of CANDU pressure tubes, addressing aging effects like cracking, corrosion and deuterium ingress.

  • Safety and Licensing: Tackles safety design and operational issues, focusing on plant aging, safety, regulatory compliance, and reducing uncertainties in licensing positions.

  • Health, Safety, and Environment: Addresses worker risks of radiation exposure, monitoring and dosimetry; and monitors environmental risks, including emissions and their impact on human and non-human health.

  • Chemistry, Materials & Components: Deals with issues affecting operations of the major CANDU systems and auxiliaries, optimizing chemistry control and managing material aging to extend asset life.

  • Industry Standard Toolset: Governs the qualification, development and maintenance of computer codes used for CANDU reactor safety and operational support.

In addition to these five program fields, Strategic R&D aims to ensure the sustainability of the CANDU industry over the next several decades, focusing on technologies to extend the operational life of current and refurbished reactors to ensure safe, reliable and competitive operation for 60-90 years. Key topics include:

  • Outage reduction

  • Enhanced computer codes for better safety margins

  • Improved materials for extended reactor life

  • Decommissioning and waste technology and infrastructure

  • Climate change impact assessment on CANDU

  • Technology to reduce environmental impacts

  • Advancing public understanding of low-level radiation

  • Human performance and organizational improvements

R&D by the Numbers

$75 million invested by our members anually

300+ active research projects, meeting priorities for safety, reliability, added revenue, human capability

60-90 years of extended plant life for current and refurbished CANDU reactors