ACR-1000 (Advanced CANDU Reactor)
AECL is developing the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR) to meet customer requirements for the emerging nuclear market over the next 20 years of sales. The ACR-1000 is an evolutionary, Generation III+, 1200 MWe class pressure tube reactor, designed to meet industry and public expectations for safe, reliable, environmentally friendly, low-cost nuclear generation. The ACR-1000 is designed for a 2016 in-service date, and is currently undergoing a pre-licensing review in Canada.
The Generation III+ ACR-1000 is aimed to meet more demanding requirements than existing CANDU reactors, particularly in regard to:
At the same time, the ACR-1000 is being developed as a logical evolutionary step from today’s CANDU technology, to take advantages of the benefits of this technology, in particular the success of AECL’s flagship CANDU 6 design.
With a 60-year design life, the ACR-1000 reactor core consists of fuel and light-water coolant in pressure tubes with a heavy water moderator. Evolved from the well-established CANDU line of reactors, the ACR-1000 benefits from valuable project-based experience in the design, construction and operation of CANDU plants for utilities around the globe. The ACR-1000 reactor incorporates and retains the proven CANDU strengths:
- Modular, compact, horizontal fuel channel core
- Separate low temperature and pressure moderator
- Reactor vault filled with light water surrounding the core
- On-power refuelling
- Enhanced passive safety
- Two independent safety shutdown systems
- Increased coolant system and turbine pressure to increase the overall thermal efficiency of the power plant
- Reactor building access for on-power maintenance.