Toronto-based Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation (CSMC) has announced that they will be leading a project focused on nuclear fission microreactors, according to a CSMC release.
Specifically, CSMC will be serving as project lead “to build manufacturing capacity for nuclear microreactors, expanding access to strategically deployable power.” The project will be part of NGen’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Program (AMTP), and will be granted $1.2 million in federal government support, 40% of the overall project cost.
The remaining 60% of project funding, CSMC said, “will be contributed by CSMC and its project partners,” which include Samuel Automation and Stern Laboratories.
SLOWPOKE and LEUNR Microreactors
The announcement said that the project will “advance the development of a dedicated advanced manufacturing cell for in-factory production of CSMC’s microreactor systems”. While the announcement didn’t specify the microreactor systems in question, it is almost certainly CSMC’s LEUNR (Low Enriched Uranium Nuclear Reactor) microreactor, which is based on licensed SLOWPOKE reactor technology from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).
The CNL SLOWPOKE microreactor’s name stands for “Safe LOW-POwer Kritical Experiment”. Originally developed in the 1960s, it’s been described by the Royal Military College of Canada as “the only type of nuclear reactor licensed in Canada for unattended operation in automatic mode”.
Seven Canadian institutions commissioned a SLOWPOKE-2 reactor, including RMC, whose microreactor was converted to the same kind of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) that is used in the CSMC’s LEUNR microreactor. Five of the original Canadian SLOWPOKE-2 reactors have been decommissioned. Only the RMC and Polytechnique Montreal are still in service. Like the RMC unit, Polytechnique Montreal also converted theirs to LEU.
“Microreactors” are seen as a promising means of providing comparatively-inexpensive in-situ power generation, as they can be built at scale in a controlled factory environment and transported where needed, instead of needing to be built on site. CSMC said that they were licensing the SLOWPOKE microreactor as a “reactor with a proven track record of reliable long-term operations” as well as an excellent safety record due to its “numerous passive safety systems”, with the hope of taking the research reactor out of the lab and into the market.
Remote and defence power applications
In line with the company’s rebranding from “Canadian Space Mining Corporation” late last year, there’s a strong focus on terrestrial applications for the LEUNR microreactors.
At the time of licensing, CSMC CEO Daniel Sax pointed to opportunities in Canada’s North, where “the needs [for reliable power generation] are well known and well documented”. This recent announcement also refers to potential defence applications, however, with Sax saying that “microreactors hold enormous promise for Canada’s defence, sovereignty and energy needs”.
Sax added that “that promise can only be realized if we can build them with the consistency and reliability that serial manufacturing enables”, and that the project “will help move us from the lab and into the factory, laying the foundation for a manufacturing process that can deliver the high-performance systems that Canada’s defence community and remote energy users need.”
CSMC’s announcement went into some detail on the roles of each partner. The project will “leverag[e] the expertise of Samuel Automation” for “development and evaluation of advanced inspection technologies, including machine vision and leak detection systems” needed to meet the standards of “high-intensity manufacturing environments”.
Stern, meanwhile, will “contribute its expertise in developing in-factory thermal hydraulic testing platforms”, which will enable “critical validation of reactor system performance during the manufacturing process.”
Fission on the Moon
Notably, the current announcement didn’t mention space applications. CSMC still has a strong presence in the space sector, though, as demonstrated by their recent success in the Canadian Space Agency’s Aqualunar Challenge. Their technology, LunaPure, “utilizes the natural lunar environment to filter and convert raw lunar ice into drinkable water”.
And as implied by the LEUNR name, these kinds of factory-built microreactors could hold great promise for lunar applications. With the United States’ and NASA’ recent pivot to exploring nuclear propulsion in space and nuclear power sources on the Moon, there could be potential opportunity in CSMC being able to offer their commercialized version of the reliable and proven SLOWPOKE technology for lunar applications.
Sax said that “Canada has a generational opportunity to lead in microreactor technology”, and that these kinds of projects “are how we build the industrial foundation to seize it.”