Chalk River reactor to undergo another extended outage next spring

Chalk River Laboratories, NRU Reactor Image source: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

The Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) has scheduled another extended outage for next spring, as part of the Chalk River Laboratories, National Research Universal (NRU) reactor's return to service activities.

As part of NRU’s ongoing operations, the reactor will run on a 28-day cycle, which will include regularly scheduled five-day outages. During these outages, planned maintenance and other supporting operations activities will be completed, said AECL.

In addition to the scheduled five-day outages, a planned extended outage of NRU is scheduled for next spring, allowing AECL to carry out more extensive maintenance and inspection and to fulfill its obligation to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The NRU reactor was shut down for less than two days early this week without interrupting the production of molybdenum-99 isotopes.