Sovereign Nuclear Canada at a Crossroads: Recycle or Die

Abstract

For over 60 years Canada has relied on its mined natural uranium to power its CANDU reactors. At recent rates of mining and exporting, Canada’s 500,000 tons of economical uranium reserves will be exhausted by 2050. The addition of small modular reactors (SMRs) will only quicken the reduction of this resource, particularly since the SMR requirement for enriched fuel calls for manifold the volume of natural uranium. However, recycling of Canada’s current stockpiles of used CANDU fuel can furnish starting fuel enriched with fissile transuranics for SMRs with a total power of 24,000 MWe. Moreover, for SMRs that can maintain and augment their fissile components, the fuel can be replenished for centuries solely with U238 or depleted uranium, while such SMRs provide fissile fuel for our CANDU reactors at equivalent power. We are at a crossroads. We can either do nuclear right, or it dies.