At the end of 2010, approximately 9,000 m³ of nuclear waste had been generated in Canada.
This inventory is expected to grow to 20,000 m³ by the end of 2050. Our program will focus
on providing a refined experimentally- and analytically-supported risk and resilience
quantification framework for the planned long-term waste storage facility.

Canada will continue to rely on nuclear power as a major component of its overall energy
supply mix for the foreseeable future, especially as Canada’s dependence on fossil fuels is
reduced. The CaNRisk-CREATE approach is focused on developing the next generation of highly
qualified personnel equipped with cross-disciplinary knowledge to ensure the safety and
resilience of Canada’s power stations under extreme events.

Control and instrumentation room is the brain of any nuclear power station. It also
monitors and control complex and interconnected systems throughout the station.
As such, providing expertise in fault-tolerant station control systems is key for the
safe operation and shut down of the reactor system.

There is need to build a deep geologic repository to store the spent nuclear fuel safely in Canada.
This $24 billion project is expected to be “Canada’s largest infrastructure project of all time”, and
its seismic design and analysis have created unprecedented challenges requiring innovative
solutions and cross-disciplinary expertise.

The use of nuclear fuel to generate energy and the subsequent disposal of the spent fuel
require multi-disciplinary expertise. The CaNRisk-CREATE team with their diverse backgrounds
provide the program trainees with the necessary breadth and depth of knowledge necessary
to ensure the resilience of Canada’s nuclear infrastructure under extreme events.

In addition to university-based training, industrial internships will enable the CaNRisk-CREATE
trainees not only to receive hands-on experience and understanding of the importance of their
academic training, but also to tailor their research to meet immediate and future industry needs
for both technical and professional skills.

Because an earthquake-related nuclear disaster can cause devastation to millions of people,
nuclear power plants are mandated to be designed for extreme earthquakes that historically
occur, on average, every 10,000 years; however, available historical records of Canadian
earthquakes go back only 250 years.

As a nuclear power station is essentially a system-of-systems, a systemic risk approach
is key for evaluating the overall station performance and resilience under extreme events.
The CaNRisk-CREATE systemic-risk approach considers the interactions between multiple
components and sub-systems that can cause a cascading series of system-level failures.

Existing micro-fractures in the vicinity of the nuclear waste storage facility will expand under seismic events.
The CaNRisk-CREATE trainees focus on understanding the effects of geosphere conditions on the groundwater
systems in order to quantify and minimize seismic risk on the nuclear waste storage facility.