A “Can-Do” Attitude: Dynamic Filtration and CANDU Reactors

CANDU6 Reactor Face

Ask the average person on the street, and they probably couldn’t tell you much about how a nuclear power plant actually works. They might know that uranium is typically used as fuel, they’ve probably heard terms like “enrichment” (and not necessarily in the best context), and some might even be able to tell you that water is typically used as a cooling agent once the fuel is spent. Even just a simple, passing awareness like that, is enough to lend itself to a discussion of Dynamic Filtration’s work with Canada’s CANDU nuclear reactors.

CANDU is an acronym, short for Canada Deuterium-Uranium: Canada, for the country of origin; deuterium, for the moderating agent (more than that later), and uranium, for the fuel. Deuterium, for the uninitiated, is a “heavy isotope” of hydrogen, meaning it possesses a neutron, while standard hydrogen has none. And that’s about as close as we’ll get to a rehash of your high school physics class (which may have have already been too close, for some people). The purpose of using deuterium, which, when substituted for hydrogen, creates “heavy water,” is to maintain the potency of the uranium fuel, lessening the absorption of neutrons by the water and therefore increasing the amount of time that the fission reaction will occur.

This is where the term “enrichment” comes into play, as well. In a “light water” reactor, the water absorbs too many neutrons, and natural uranium must be enriched to increase its levels of Uranium-235. Enrich it to 5%, and you have useful uranium for fuel. Enrich it to 90%, and you’ve got a nuclear weapon, and lot of new enemies. Of course, enrichment facilities can be used to achieve either of these ends – and are expensive, to boot. Since the CANDU reactor doesn’t require enriched uranium, this whole concern is irrelevant.

Where does Dynamic Filtration enter the picture? As you might imagine, that heavy water needs to be pure to successfully facilitate the nuclear reaction – 99.75% pure, in fact. Dynamic Filtration’s filters keep the incoming water contaminant-free, and the outgoing, used water free of any foreign materials so that it may be disposed of properly.

Be sure to contact us at Dynamic Filtration with any further questions!