Top 5 CANDU Reactor Facts you DON'T know

The CANDU Reactor is an innovative technology. In this video I'll share how this technology was able to single handedly decarbonize one of Canada's largest provinces Ontario (home to Toronto). It also produces life saving radiomedical isotopes such as cobalt-60, Molybdenum 99 and Helium-3 which are used for cancer therapy and many other medical & industry applications. I also share why Nuclear fusion is impossible without CANDU and how its use to produce a very rare isotope called tritium. Lastly, many don't know but CANDU's can be used to burn spent fuel from PWR reactors. Yes, it can be used as a waste burner reactor, which comes with several benefits.

⏰TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Why CANDU's can DO a LOT
00:54 - The story of Decarbonizing Ontario
02:01 - Elimination of smog days
02:46 - Isotope Production
03:06 - How are isotopes created in the CANDU?
04:34 - How CANDU achieved World record performance
05:47 - What is baseload energy?
06:30 - Significance of capacity factor
07:16 - Nuclear Fusion is impossible without CANDU
07:36 - Why tritium is a VERY important resource
08:44 - DUPIC Fuel - Direct Use of PWR fuel in CANDU
09:45 - Benefits of DUPIC fuel
10:25 - Origins of DUPIC Fuel
10:53 - Conclusion

🙋🏾‍♂️WHO AM I:
I'm Osama, I have a background in Nuclear Engineering and work in Toronto, On my channel I help demystify nuclear technologies by simplifying them

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INSTAGRAM: 📷 @usimama

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🚧 Disclaimer: views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the video belong solely to Osama, and not necessarily to Osama's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

[jeremywhitlock]

Well done Osama! Some interesting (and to some, perhaps surprising) facts about one of the more misunderstood commercial power reactor designs operating today.

[davidanderson]

I did actually know four of those facts, but I was very pleased to learn that fusion was dependent on CANDU-produced tritium. Thanks!

[jwestney]

Thank you for making bookmarks. Your extra effort makes it easy to follow-along and repeat the deeper parts.

[swokatsamsiyu]

Yes! Another great video about one of my most favourite reactors! In my humble opinion, the CANDU is one of the most underestimated, unappreciated reactor designs out there. I mean, it's one of the most robust and safe reactors one could hope for. It can use the spent fuel from PWRs as fuel, it makes those medical isotopes, it will run quietly for years on end making electricity without nasty greenhouse emissions etc. And after seeing the Bruce Power videos about how they totally refurbished their Bruce 1 reactors so they can go for another 35 yrs or so, what's not to like?

A good friend of mine and me engage regularly in mental exercises on how to solve my country's energy problems. Like Germany, here "nuclear power" is also a very dirty word. And it's all politically driven. We have one NPP, an aging (49 yrs old) PWR in Borssele. We're like; "Why don't they build a CANDU right next to it?!? They have the space. It can use the spent fuel from the neighbours next door to close the fuel cycle. It can make hydrogen for heating houses and as fuel for hydrogen cars. And it will be a backup for when they have to replace the old PWR with a new one. After they replaced the old one we're set for decades to come! Why are they futzing about with the not-so-green biomass?!? There's nothing green about it!" Maybe you need to come over and do a lecture for these governmental nincompoops^^

[dodaexploda]

That's some mighty good CANDU Very good video. I'd be happy to see a block diagram tour of our candu reactors and all of the interesting ins and outs of them. Also all of my fellow Canadians, share this video! Let's show some pride in our fleet and get Osama some views!

[jwestney]

Very well done video. You did a great job helping people to understand CANDU. And your video is friendly... without scary big words that science people use!

[cecilthornhill]

Osama, great material, but please consider lowering the level of the background music track relative to your voice track 🙂. I was super happy to see this content about the outstanding CANDU technology, but it was a bit hard to hear!

[AlldaylongRock]

The fun thing about CANDUs is that they are basically RBMKs that are on the side, and scrapped Graphite and light water as primary moderator and coolant respectively. Making them substantially safer than the RBMK (if the reactor vessel cracks the reactor simply shuts off), while keeping its favorable features, running on NU and online refueling. It can further burn used LWPWR SNF, and can also burn thorium with some design tweaks. Tbh, a pretty mature technology for the short term future of nuclear power.

[ЕвгенийЛагунов-цы]

Super informative! Awesome! Thank you 😉

[LFTRnow]

Yes! We need more CANDUs! Why aren't we building them?
Also, please lower background music volume for future vids.

[steveirwin]

Very good video Osama!!! The coming Tritium shortage should cause a CANDU building spree. Coupling H3 with DUPIC maybe a home run. Question how does a CANDU unit produce Mo99 for hospital use? I know NRU does but I'm not sure I consider that a CANDU. More a reason reactor, a very old one!!! A very productive old one.

[davidwilkie]

It is astounding to me that all the engineering and obvious benefits of CANDU were clearly identified 5 years before I was born, benefits so convincingly good that certain people could use it to secure their objectives of constructing weapons of mass destruction to the extreme of 50X capability of destroying humanity, instead of protecting the whole Gaian Planetary Ecology and preventing needless mega deaths.

[ericderbez]

Thank you Osama for extolling the virtues of CANDU reactors (ps Rumania will be building the latest). Quick question. When you say CANDUs are the only source of Tritium, you mean commercially I am guessing? Presumably the US and Russia have their Tritium breeders from Li6 to maintain the thermonuclear stock-pile 'battle ready' given its 12.5 year half life. Right?

[RevMikeBlack]

Interesting info. Unfortunately, the music really interferes with your excellent commentary. It's unnecessary and distracting.

[rhonda-my_honda_cbx]

@ 07:39 I had to chuckle a bit. "... D+T fusion is the easiest to achieve". It's more accurate to say "D+T fusion is the least hard to achieve (for net power gain)" which is still 99.99% impossible 🤨🤔

[goranz]

Can't say I'm crazy about production of radioisitopes for cure for cancer. Its awfull. Controled cost effective nuclear fusion will never be achieved, so the tritium remains a problem, luckily not so longterm. Im interested about further enhancing of the neutron economy. Can it be done with beryilium coating inside the reactor.

[ancapftw]

Every nuclear reactor makes tritium one of the issues with Fukushima was that it released tritium into the local.water supply.

[jensjensen]

How complicated and expensive is it reprocessing of spent PWR fuel for use in a CANDU reactor compared with "fresh" fuel?

[EdPheil]

Most of the world's tritium is produced in reactors like Watts Barr pwr's in the US, formed from Lithium-6.

[jivinliew]

Sir, I have a question, let’s just say a country is at war and a nuclear power plant is attacked, can it meltdown or no, what are the safety precautions in place