Additive in Industry: Exploring CNL's Innovations in Printing Nuclear Fuel

Enjoy a wide-ranging discussion with Dr Anil Prasad and James Crigger, from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Find out how CNL is advancing clean energy technology as well as helping millions around the globe with medical breakthroughs like Actinium 225. Listen to Anil’s journey as a university student from India to Canada, and his desire to help decarbonize the planet, while James has a very different career path to share.  We talk about the role of nuclear in Canada – over half of Ontario’s power is generated from nuclear - and why the plants we do have can’t last forever, even with refurbishment. Printing nuclear fuel with internal channels is one idea being tested to improve performance, allowing for better thermal management around the nuclear fuel pellets. After 3d printing Thorium using photopolymerization, Uranium Dioxide provided new challenges that Anil and James have had to solve in the lab with clever compounding of plastic filament.  All this work is taking place on the Chalk River site that is continuously adding new World class facilities including an Advanced Nuclear materials research centre currently under construction.

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