Canadian History

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Canada's Nuclear History

AECL Achievements: A Half-Century Tradition

1945   The ZEEP research reactor is completed at Chalk River, Ontario 
        and sustains the first controlled nuclear chain reaction outside the 
        United States

1947   The National Research Experimental (NRX) reactor starts up at Chalk 
        River -- the most powerful research reactor in the world

1952   The Canadian Government forms the Crown corporation Atomic Energy 
        of Canada Limited, or AECL, from precursor organizations dating 
        back to the early 1940s

1954   AECL, Ontario Hydro, and Canadian General Electric (now G.E. 
        Canada Inc.) form a partnership to build Canada's first nuclear 
        power plant, Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD)

1957   The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor starts up, and today
        is still considered one of the world's finest for its versatility 
        and high neutron flux

1960   Work begins on a 200 MWe CANDU prototype at Douglas Point, Ontario

1962   The Province of Ontario receives nuclear-generated electricity for 
        the first time from the NPD station

1965   The Douglas Point station starts up

1973   The Pickering Nuclear Generating Station in Ontario is completed, 
        producing more electricity than any nuclear power station in the 
        world at that time

1974   AECL makes its first international sale to Argentina -- a single-
        unit CANDU 6 reactor, derived from the multi-unit Pickering station

1977   Pickering Unit 3 achieves the highest capacity factor in the world

1981   Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau visits Wolsong during construction 
        of Unit 1

1982   AECL begins construction on an Underground Research Laboratory for 
        investigation of long-term disposal of nuclear fuel waste

1983   Four CANDU 6s in Argentina (1 unit), Canada (2 units), Republic of 
        Korea (1 unit) start commercial operation and CANDU wins seven of 
        the top 10 places for lifetime performance among the world's 
        reactors

1987   CANDU wins one of the ten Canadian awards for the top engineering 
        achievements of the past century

1990   The Republic of Korea orders Wolsong Unit 2

1992   The Republic of Korea signs for two more reactors, Wolsong Units 
        3 and 4

1994   Bertram Brockhouse is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
        discoveries using neutron scattering at the NRU reactor.

1994   Pickering Unit 7 sets a world record for continuous operation 
        (894 days) without a shutdown

1995   The HANARO research reactor, with a core based on MAPLE technology, 
        starts up in the Republic of Korea

1996   Cernavoda Unit 1 attains criticality in Romania on April 16 -- 
        the first CANDU in Europe

Contributors and Attributions

Chung (Peter) Chieh (Professor Emeritus, Chemistry @ University of Waterloo)