Cover Story: “Pebble Bed” Nuclear Reactors Touted for Alberta’s Oilsands

Published by: System
in Energy, Issue 13 & 14, Volume 17
By Elona Malterre
and Mark Lowey

           Emerging “pebble bed” nuclear reactor technology would be a much better fit for supplying energy to Alberta’s expanding in situ oilsands development than Canadian-made CANDU reactors, two international experts say.

           Pebble bed reactors are not only safer and easier to build, they are “right-sized for the Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) operation in terms of temperatures and pressures that are needed for the steam injection in the ground,” Andrew Kadak, nuclear engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said in an interview with EnviroLine.

           For supplying high-pressure steam to a 40,000 to 60,000 barrels-per-day…


This is an article from Volume 17 Issue 13 & 14.
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