A new collaboration between McMaster researchers and nuclear not-for-profit, Conexus Nuclear Inc., is helping improve radiation safety inside Canada’s CANDU nuclear power reactors.
Led by McMaster Physics and Astronomy professor Soo Hyun Byun and Biology professor Carmel Mothersill, the project is supported by a $1.6 million investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Alliance Grants program.
Leveraging McMaster’s world-class nuclear research facilities, Mothersill and Byun will lead the two-part project to develop advanced radiation detection instruments for nuclear power plants and investigate the effects of low-level radiation on human health and the environment.
Nuclear power currently provides approximately 15 per cent of Canada’s electricity and 55 per cent of Ontario’s electricity. Those numbers are expected to rise as more reactors, including small modular reactors, come online to support communities and industry.
The growth in this sector — and the importance of safeguarding the people who power it — is what inspired the project, says Byun.
“Current technologies for detecting and measuring radiation are limited, particularly for nuclear power plants, where radiation doses are low and multiple types of radiation are present,” he says.
“Our team is developing real-time radiation measurement instruments that are more accurate and efficient than current devices, particularly for mixed radiation fields — for example, beta and gamma ray mixed fields — with the aim of deploying them in Canada’s nuclear power plants.”
Mothersill’s research team will investigate the potential impacts of low-level radiation exposure on humans and non-human species in sensitive Canadian ecosystems.
“Low doses of radiation are very different and complex in comparison to high doses,” she explains.
“Historically, it’s been a challenge to understand the true effects and risks of low-level radiation exposure. This uncertainty underlies much of the opposition to the development of nuclear technologies today,” she says.
Her team will develop robust bio-indicators for radiation exposure and effects that can help inform nuclear safety regulators and provide tools for low-dose risk assessment.
“Our new models will help put radiation risks in context, while enhancing protections for the workers who make nuclear innovation possible,” says Mothersill.
The project is not only a unique collaboration between disciplines in the Faculty of Science.
It will be carried out in partnership with Conexus (formerly CANDU Owners Group Inc.), a Canadian, not-for-profit nuclear collaboration hub with a track record of more than 40 years of accelerating innovation and supporting excellence across the nuclear industry.
Conexus has committed an additional $1 million to the project and aims to implement the new radiation detection technologies, which will help the nuclear industry save on operating costs by reducing measurement time, and improve their capability to protect workers and the public.
The project will help raise awareness on advancements in radiation biology, clarify the real effects of low-level radiation exposure and provide better biological techniques for monitoring non-human biota and the environment, says Devin Sullivan, program manager, Health Safety and Environment at Conexus.
“Conexus is proud to collaborate with McMaster — a long-standing partner to the CANDU community — on this project,” he says.
“Together with McMaster’s nuclear experts, we’re delivering tangible benefits to the nuclear industry, including reduced worker exposure, increased efficiency and more training opportunities for the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers — all of which contribute to a safer, more productive and more sustainable industry.”
McMaster undergraduate and graduate students will take part in the project and have the chance to develop cutting-edge skills in radiation detector design and fabrication, digital signal processor programming, data analysis and radiation biology, says Mothersill.
“We’re excited to get students involved in this project and we’re proud to build on our 15+ year history of collaboration with Conexus and the CANDU community,” says Byun.
No other Canadian institution has the range of facilities and capacity for radiation research that McMaster has, Mothersill notes. “Not to mention our track record for training highly qualified professionals in radiation biology and health physics.”