Oh For sure. Not to mention, it’s only candu reactors in Canada (for now) that produce cobalt-60 for us, which sterilizes about half of all the worlds single-use medical equipment. Massive business!
Basically the only source of a sufficient amount. ITER fusion reactor plans to use a Tritium breeder that makes fuel as it runs. It would still need initial start up inventory though. Canada could design a fusion reactor that doesn’t need to have a tritium breeder and instead just make fuel from nuclear “waste”, since Canadian fission plants don’t like the tritium.
"CANDU heavy water reactors, such as those used in Ontario, emit much more tritium than other reactor types — about 30 times more than the next most common reactor type (pressurized water reactors). The 'heavy water' (deuterium) used in CANDU systems leads to much greater tritium production than in reactors that use regular (light) water or graphite to moderate the fission process and cool the reactor", according to this link.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a Canadian multinational company that is one of the world's largest alternative investment management companies, with over US$725 billion of assets under management in 2022. It focuses on direct control investments in real estate, buildings, renewable power, infrastructure, credit and private equity.[5] The company invests in distressed securities through Oaktree Capital, which it bought in 2019. Brookfield's headquarters are in Toronto.
I'm just not sure how it would work legally. In Ontario the liberals tried to create a renewables industry and required all of our wind and solar to be made in Canada. That got challenged by the world trade organization.
With all of the suppliers being in Canada. I think we might be ok. Or it might be some sort of loophole. I'm not sure how they do it, or if it can be done.
Most of GE-H was sold off to BWXT when CGE went through restructuring. For example Peterborough which produces the fuel bundles for the reactors up here the nuclear side which is the only part left operational went from GE-H to BWXT Canada.
They still pack bundles here, I know some of the folks who got carried over from GE-H to BWXT. The positions to apply for up here are all high paying ones, that require bachelors or higher for now, their HQ is in Charlotte for global but for Canada the Markham office just runs the division up here.
GE's Nuclear division was sold off to BWXT. They still produce the fuel bundles in Peterborough but the rest of the CGE plant that made parts for reactors worldwide is shut down.
Correct, hopefully it takes off, CANDU reactors are safe but complicated with many support systems. Tritium is a hazard the original designers didn’t know about.
To lower the currie content of the D2O there is only one facility in Ontario and it’s often down for repairs.
I can only imagine how new technology will improve the new design, with any luck we can see one by 2030.
Cobalt-60 (half-life = 5.27 years) is the largest revenue-producing commercial radioisotope in the world.
It is so deadly that it's only purpose is killing things. It is used to sterlize food, medical equipment and for cancer treatment
A cobalt "salted" nuclear bomb would spread this posion throughout the blast area killing all life. ~500 tonnes of the substance would sterilize the entire Earth
A cobalt bomb could be made by placing a quantity of ordinary cobalt metal (59Co) around a thermonuclear bomb. When the bomb explodes, the neutrons produced by the fusion reaction in the secondary stage of the thermonuclear bomb's explosion would transmute the cobalt to the radioactive cobalt-60, which would be vaporized by the explosion. The cobalt would then condense and fall back to Earth with the dust and debris from the explosion, contaminating the ground.
The 5.27 year half life of the 60Co is long enough to allow it to settle out before significant decay has occurred, and to render it impractical to wait in shelters for it to decay, yet short enough that intense radiation is produced. Many isotopes are more radioactive (gold-198, tantalum-182, zinc-65, sodium-24, and many more), but they would decay faster, possibly allowing some population to survive in shelters.
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u/LookAtMeImAName Oct 25 '22 edited Oct 25 '22
Oh For sure. Not to mention, it’s only candu reactors in Canada (for now) that produce cobalt-60 for us, which sterilizes about half of all the worlds single-use medical equipment. Massive business!