Description
The NPD station was located on the west bank of the Ottawa River about 140 miles upstream from the City of Ottawa. It was situated close by the AECL research establishment at Chalk River and the HEPC hydro generating station at Des Joachims, Ontario. It had a maximum continuous output of 22 MW(e), which gave a net station output of 19.5 MW(e).
The reactor was fueled with 40 000 lb of UO2 in the form of ceramic pellets sheathed in Zircaloy-2 tubes. The fuel was subdivided into nine bundles per channel and for the first time in any reactor, fuel changing was designed to be carried out on power by remotely operated machines which push a fresh bundle in one end of the channel and remove the spent bundle from the other end, a design feature that carried through to the later CANDU products.
The primary role of NPD was as a prototype for CANDU engineering. Over the years it served as a test bed for new fuels, materials, components, and instruments.
Equally important, NPD was the training and simulation center for generations of Canadian and off-shore CANDU operations staff. This role began shortly after the start of operation, when a training program was set up by Ontario Hydro.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Power Demonstration
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