The Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII) said Thursday it has launched the Canadian Centre for Space Isotopes in Toronto, a group that will study how Canada can become a leader in supplying the radioactive isotopes that power deep-space probes.
The institute is a member-based not-for-profit that works on nuclear and clean energy. According to its release, the centre will run research, policy work and industry meetings through 2030, with a report on the opportunity to make Canada a leader in space isotopes due in early 2027. Jessica Linthorne, the institute’s president and chief executive officer, and James Scongack, its board chair, co-chair the steering committee.
Radioisotope power systems turn the heat given off by decaying isotopes into electricity for probes and rovers. The release says the global supply of the isotopes future missions need is “critically low” and that Canada “has the leadership, technology and expertise to meet the demand.”
While the release speaks of space isotopes in general, the best known is plutonium-238, which NASA has previously used. Russia stopped selling it to the United States in 2009, and the U.S. Department of Energy has since restarted production at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. NASA is currently reviewing a proposal for a plutonium-powered rover for the Moon’s south pole.
An expert panel
The NII says the centre’s expert panel brings “a wealth of leadership, experience and advocacy in the space and energy sectors.”
Those panelists include:
- Dr. Douglas Boreham, Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University
- Pam Damoff, Chief Executive Officer, The Pearson Centre
- Dr. Andrei Hanu, Senior Scientist – Dosimetry, Bruce Power
- Dr. Justin Kasper, Chief of Technology, BWXT
- Peter McDermid, Director – Business Development, Bruce Power
- Dr. Husain Mehdi, Director of Life Cycle Management, Kinectrics
- Bharath Nangia, President and CEO, Nuclear Promise X
- Darryl Spector, President, Promation
- Dr. Paul Spekkens, Executive Consultant, Kinectrics
- Bill Walker, Vice President of Government and Stakeholder Relations, BWXT
- The Honourable John Yakabuski, former Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and former MPP for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke
James Scongack, NII Board Chair and Canadian Centre for Space Isotopes Steering Committee Co-chair, said in the release that the centre “exists to find out what becomes possible when those two strengths meet,” referring to Canada’s work in space and in medical isotopes. Scongack is also the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President at Bruce Power.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who gave the launch keynote, said in the release that Canada “is using our raw materials and skilled engineering know-how to lead the world.”
Four ministers welcomed the launch: federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, and Ontario’s Stephen Lecce and Vic Fedeli.
Lecce said Ontario has “a plan to double production by 2030.” That plan, announced in July 2025, covers medical isotopes. The release says the centre is aligned with “Canada’s commitment to double its isotope production.”
Canada already has one isotope project aimed at space. Canadensys Aerospace and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories said in July they have launched a program to build heaters fuelled by tritium, a hydrogen isotope made as a byproduct in Canadian-designed CANDU reactors, for lunar and deep-space missions.
Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) is also developing nuclear power for the Moon, but with a different technology. The company unveiled three reactor platforms in September, including JAY-1, a compact reactor for lunar bases. A reactor splits atoms in a chain reaction to make heat, while the isotope power systems the Centre is studying draw heat from an isotope as it decays on its own.
Today’s news follows a January 2024 effort whereby the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council and Nuclear Promise X said they would study, for the Canadian Space Agency, whether Canadian reactors could make plutonium-238. The findings of the initial Canadian Space Agency study were to be delivered as an internal feasibility assessment. No public report has been issued yet that SpaceQ could find.