AECL’s major licensed facilities are the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) in Chalk River, Ontario, and the Whiteshell Laboratories (WL) in Pinawa, Manitoba.

CRL is Canada’s national nuclear laboratory. Since 1944, it has been the home of research and development for the CANDU reactor platform. Much pioneering work was performed at Chalk River, including fundamental reactor physics research and development of reactor physics computer programs, chemistry, fuels, materials and engineered systems for the CANDU reactor. The technology was also put to good use in radio-medicine applications and AECL became, and still is, the world’s leading producer of medical radioisotopes. The National Research Council performs fundamental materials research using neutrons generated in the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor.

WL is currently in a decommissioning phase, having produced much valuable research since its opening in the 1960s. Many of the research and development activities performed at WL have been moved to CRL.

CRL and WL are licensed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.