Image: McMaster University

University Network Research Facilities

New Brunswick

University of New Brunswick

The University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Centre for Nuclear Energy Research (CNER) provides state-of-the-art interdisciplinary applied research services to organizations and industry leaders worldwide. The centre also specializes in water chemistry control and corrosion prevention, detection and monitoring, and has various in-house mechanical and chemistry labs.  

In addition to the labs, CNER has multiple fully automated high-temperature and high-pressure test loops. These test loops can simulate the primary heat transport system of a CANDU reactor, the nuclear power stations’ secondary heat transport system, and steam-raising circuits in thermal power generation plants. 

UNB and CNER have a formal relationship with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which ensures CNER can perform activities compliant with nuclear regulatory standards. 

Ontario

McMaster University 

McMaster University houses various high-level nuclear research facilities, including the McMaster Nuclear Reactor. McMaster’s nuclear facilities conduct research on four themes: environment, materials, nuclear, and health.   

The McMaster Nuclear Reactor and the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy (CCEM) include a 1×1010 n/s fast neutron generator for neutron imaging, a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy test facility, and a neutron/gamma-ray computed tomography prototype.   

McMaster’s Centre for Advanced Nuclear Systems (CANS) provides a suite of post irradiation examination capabilities and new test equipment. CANS has five main facilities: the Nuclear Materials Post-Irradiation Examination Facility, the Nuclear Materials Characterization Facility, the Nuclear Thermal Testing Facility, Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy Laboratory, and the Health Physics Dose Response Facility (this facility is located at Ontario Tech University). 

The CANS infrastructure, together with the McMaster Nuclear Reactor and the CCEM, provides world class materials, thermal testing center and capability unique to North America.  

Radiation scientist examines equipment at the Centre for Advanced Nuclear Systems
Image: McMaster

Ontario Tech University  

Image: Ontario Tech

Ontario Tech University provides various high-level research laboratories in multiple fields for research and development in mixed-field radiation measurements, environmental radioactivity, aerosol science, electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometry, aquatic species radiation biology, and virtual and augmented reality capability.  

Some of Ontario Tech’s labs include Dr. Ed Waller’s Aerosol and Radiation Laboratory, a state-of-the-art lab used to investigate potential hazards from terrorist-use of radiological dispersal devices, and Dr. Harvel’s Nuclear Design Laboratory, which studies multi-disciplinary interfaces and integrated designs related to nuclear technology for developing new nuclear plant concepts, design modifications to existing designs, and design modifications for improved decommissioning activities. 

Other laboratories include the Detector Physics and Experimental Microdosimetry Laboratory, Advanced Plasma Engineering Laboratory, Corrosion and Electrochemistry Laboratory, Simulation Laboratory, Nuclear Materials Laboratory, Energy Safety and Control Laboratory, Applied Thermodynamics Laboratory, and the Nuclear Instruments and Radiation Laboratory. 

Ontario Tech is also home to the Clean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL), a world-class facility where researchers are working on the world’s first lab-scale demonstration of a copper-chlorine cycle for thermochemical water splitting and nuclear hydrogen production. Using nuclear, solar or other heat sources (such as waste heat from industrial plant emissions), the Cu-Cl cycle promises to achieve higher efficiencies, lower environmental impact and lower costs of hydrogen production than any other existing technology.

Queen’s University 

Queen’s Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory (RTML) is a state-of-the-art, fully equipped facility with a suite of equipment for testing mechanical and corrosion properties, as well as a range of characterization equipment, including in situ capabilities. RTML also provides facilities to simulate irradiation damage in materials, characterize materials at the nanoscale, and perform mechanical testing.  

Other complimentary facilities include a high-temperature corrosion laboratory, a physical vapour deposition coating machine, and a high-temperature water loop with in situ Raman spectroscopy. The RMTL is also equipped with a proton and helium accelerator to introduce radiation damage and transmutation products into materials, mimicking the changes to materials occurring in a nuclear reactor. 

Nuclear researcher works with equipment
Image: Queen’s University’s Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory

Royal Military College of Canada 

The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) includes many high-level research laboratories, equipment and instrumentation such as the scanning electron microscope, the nuclear magnetic resonance instrument, the x-ray diffractometer, the Chemical Store Room and the Mechanical Shop.  

In addition to these facilities, the RMC also includes the Non-Destructive Test Laboratory, which focuses on laboratory experimentation and computer modelling of ultrasonic testing, probability of detection, pulsed eddy current, remote field eddy current, eddy current testing and multi-frequency eddy current testing.  

University of Guelph 

The University of Guelph has a wide range of both custom-built and commercial instrumentation for high-precision measurements on hydrothermal solutions. These instruments all employ inert cells fabricated from platinum, zirconium, titanium or Hastelloy C in order to measure the thermodynamic properties of solutions of interest to up to 350 C and 20 MPa in situ. 

University of Toronto 

Image: University of Toronto

The University of Toronto provides various high-tech facilities, including the Ontario Centre for the Characterisation of Advanced Materials (OCCAM) and the Dynamic Systems Lab.

The Ontario Centre for the Characterisation of Advanced Materials provides researchers access to state-of-the-art surface analytical equipment, electron microscopic techniques and related expertise.  

The Dynamic Systems Lab develops learning and adaptation capabilities for mobile robots to facilitate reliable, long-term robot applications. The main area of interest is focused on the challenges associated with robots, such as self-driving and self-flying vehicles operating in increasingly unstructured, uncertain and changing environments, and over long periods of time. 

University of Waterloo 

The University of Waterloo’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility offers a variety of spectrometers including two Bruker 300 MHz high resolution, a Bruker 500 MHz high resolution with solid capabilities, and a Bruker 600 MHz high resolution. 

In addition to this, Waterloo also houses the Mass Spectrometry Facility, specializing in mass spectrometers capable of analyzing various (bio)chemical species and complex mixtures, and the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre, which is capable of nuclear magnetic resonance and spin-based quantum information processing.  

University of Windsor 

The University of Windsor’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility is used for the application of NMR techniques for chemical and biochemical problems, including the elucidation of molecular structure and measurement of molecular dynamics. The facility has three 300 MHz Bruker Solution NMRs, a 400 MHz Bruker Solid State NMR, a 500 MHz Bruker NMR, a Bruker ESP 300e Xband EPR, a prep lab, and a workshop and storage room.  

The University of Windsor is also home to various other laboratories, equipment and instrumentation including the Solid-State NMR Laboratory, the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, single-crystal x-ray diffractometers, powder x-ray diffraction and the AFM/STM microscope. 

Western University

Western’s nuclear facilities include state-of-the-art simulators, an electrochemistry laboratory, and a suite of instruments for radiation-induced chemistry corrosion research. 

Western’s Nuclear Power Plant Process Control Test Facility (NPCTF) is a physical simulator for the control system of a typical CANDU based nuclear power plant. The NPCTF uses real media (water, air) and industry-grade sensors and actuators. 

In addition to the NPCTF, Western is also home to Wren Lab, the research group of Dr. Clara Wren with several well-equipped laboratories. The facilities include an electrochemistry laboratory, a high-powered IR laser, with other laboratories housing analytical instruments such as a high magnification optical microscope, gas chromatograph, and an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer for measuring the concentrations of dissolved metal species. 

Image: Western’s Wren Lab

Saskatchewan

University of Regina 

Image: University of Regina

The University of Regina is home to multiple high-tech facilities including the Nuclear Imaging and Detector Development Lab (NIDDL), the Hyper-K Lab, the Hall-C Detector Lab, the Nuclear-Astro Lab and the GlueX Development Lab.  

The NIDDL is fully equipped to develop imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography.  

University of Saskatchewan 

The University of Saskatchewan houses many high-level nuclear facilities, including the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation. The Fedoruk Centre is the home to the Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences, which supports innovation in nuclear imaging and therapy in living specimens, including animals, plants and humans.  

The Fedoruk Centre is named after Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk, who helped develop cobalt-60 radiation therapy for cancer treatments. Dr. Fedoruk was also the first female Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, the first female member of the Atomic Energy Control Board and the first female chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan.  

Image: Fedoruk Centre

Québec

Polytechnique Montréal

Polytechnique Montréal houses multiple high-level nuclear facilities, including their SLOWPOKE lab. The SLOWPOKE lab houses a nuclear reactor fueled by uranium enriched to 20 per cent U-235. The reactor develops neutron activation analysis methods, including k0-NAA, a method of chemical analysis used to measure the concentrations of elements in solids and liquids. 

Polytechnique Montréal is also the home of a thermal hydraulics laboratory that contains various test facilities, including heat transfer loops, which allow applied and fundamental research on two-phase flows and boiling phenomena at high pressures and temperatures to be carried out, and the interconnected subchannel test facility, which conducts fundamental research on mass exchanges between subchannels under single and two-phase flow conditions.  

The university’s thermal hydraulics laboratory also has an air-water countercurrent rig, an adiabatic air-water flow pattern identification rig, and an air-water rig with a quick-closing valve QCV system. 

International University Member Romania

Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti  

Image: Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti

The Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti includes a variety of modern laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art technology. These facilities include the Laboratory of Hydropneumatic Drives, the Laboratory of Hydraulic Machines, the Laboratory of Electrical Equipment, the Co-Generation Thermal Power Plant, the Laboratory of High Voltage Technique with the outdoor experimental platform, and the Electroenergetic system model.