Interesting

Since late last fall, we've been hearing on and off about the MAPLE Reactors meant to replace the now rather old NRU reactor at Chalk River.

A reader pointed me to this article on CTV which starts to address why the MAPLE program is so far behind schedule:

"There seems to be a fundamental design problem with the MAPLEs. A project cannot last that long -- cannot last eight years -- unless there is a fundamental problem," the insider told CTV News.

One key problem is that when engineers run computer simulations, safety issues arise.

"You shut the reactor down, but the temperature in the core continues to increase," said the insider.

Interesting. So, the MAPLE project is encountering a series of engineering problems - and one of them is clearly quite serious. The good news is that the reactors are not in full production and the engineers are continuing to try and sort out the issues.

This is in fact the same kind of due diligence towards safety that should be applied - and was not being implemented - with the NRU reactor. (Which is my primary concern with Bill C-38's reactivation of the NRU reactor in the absence of completion of key safety system upgrades)