Voyageur 2022 April

V17 • I04 • APRIL 2022

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories

VOYAGEUR AECL & CNL TEAM UP TO HOST 2022 OPEN HOUSE Public will have a rare opportunity to visit the campus on Saturday, August 6, 2022 A lot has changed since the Chalk River Laboratories held its last Open House in 2017. Since then, CNL has completed construction of a new site entrance building and a new support facility, broken ground on a new Science Collaboration Centre, and safely completed the demolition and decommissioning of over 100 buildings. On the horizon is construction of the Advanced Nuclear Materials Research Centre (ANMRC), which is scheduled to begin later this year. Once complete, the ANMRC will be one of the largest nuclear research facilities ever constructed in Canada, and will serve as the backbone of CNL’s research and development infrastructure.

AECL and CNL are throwing a party at the Chalk River Laboratories, and everyone is invited! To celebrate the continued revitalization of the site, AECL’s 70th Anniversary, and all the great accomplishments being made by their respective teams, the organizations will team up to host the 2022 Open House on Saturday, August 6, 2022, at the Chalk River Laboratories campus. As a CNL staff member, this is your opportunity to bring your family, friends, colleagues (and potential new recruits) to see the campus first hand.

Last held five years ago, the previous open house drew over 2,000 visitors from across North America, eager to see Canada’s largest science institution, and one of the world’s preeminent nuclear facilities. The 2022 Open House will once again offer the public a unique opportunity to visit the secure site for a day filled with interactive fun for kids and adults alike, including scientific demonstrations, laboratory tours, booths and displays, mega-machines, hands-on experiments, food vendors, presentations and much more.

“Given all the exciting changes that are taking place at the Chalk River Laboratories, we felt that the time was right to open our doors to the public so they can see the transformation unfolding inperson,” commented Joe McBrearty, CNL’s President and CEO. “But we also want to give families a fun and interactive experience that showcases all of the work that we do here, whether it is conducting an experiment, protecting wildlife or driving a fire truck. Overall, I think it will be a really fun day for anyone who is curious about what happens at the end of Plant Road in Chalk River.”

In addition to the changing skyline at the campus, AECL and CNL also hope that the event will give the public some exposure to the work that is carried out on behalf of Canadians. As Canada’s national nuclear laboratories, work conducted at the campus fulfills three key missions on behalf of the Government of Canada: restoring and protecting the environment, developing clean energy technologies for today and tomorrow, and contributing to the health of Canadians.

HELP CNL SPREAD THE WORD! 1.

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Let people know about the opportunity and plan to attend, particularly if you have out of town guests.

Speak with your manager and others in your branch and consider setting up a display or tour of your facility.

Remember, it must be located in (or portable enough to move to) to the Supervised Area or Parking Lot. Corporate Communications will help ensure you have everything you need to be successful.

We will be seeking volunteers to help with the guided tours, greet visitors on arrival, provide directions and generally just help ensure the day goes smoothly. Shoot an email to communications@cnl.ca to sign up.

Register. We ask that CNL staff attending the event also secure their tickets. Its free and really easy to do, but helps us plan. CNL staff as well as any guests that accompany them need to register at www.cnl.ca/openhouse.

Please email communications@cnl.ca if you have questions.

‘A NEW RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES’ IN ZIRCONIUM Zirconium parts successfully manufactured by CNL researchers using 3D Printing The ongoing advances in additive manufacturing – or 3D printing, as it is more commonly known – offer tremendous benefits to many different sectors around the world, and the nuclear industry is no exception. Among the promising applications being studied here at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, 3D Printing has the potential to ‘unlock’ an entirely new range of possibilities in nuclear fuel development, including new geometries, new materials, new fuel blends, and even the ability to embed other materials into the fuel itself, such as a sensor.

In recent years, CNL has procured its own 3D printing equipment to explore the different ways that we could leverage the technology to perform this research, in fuel development and beyond. In pursuit of that goal, CNL recently made a breakthrough in the manufacturing of nuclear components using a material that offers tremendous benefits to the nuclear power sector in both performance and safety. That material is zirconium.

“Zirconium is a very valuable material to the nuclear industry for three reasons,” explained Scott Read, an R&D Researcher in CNL’s Mechanical Equipment Development (MED) department. “First, neutrons pass through zirconium very easily, so it doesn’t disrupt the

CNL ACHIEVES GLP RECONITION We are pleased to announce that CNL has achieved Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) Facility Certification for Chalk River Laboratories. This designation marks several years of implementing rigorous new practices and processes per the governing standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It’s hard work that is opening new doors to exciting opportunities!

What is GLP? GLP procedures inform how we manage the training of staff and equipment and computerized system use and how we conduct GLP studies and manage all related records. In short, GLP recognition enforces a high degree of Quality Assurance (QA) to ensure data integrity and traceability. This includes construction of a secured storage room near

fission process that is taking place within the reactor core. Secondly, the material is very resistant to corrosion, which means that it maintains its structural integrity for a long time. And finally, zirconium exhibits good mechanical properties at high temperatures, so it can withstand the extreme heat that is present in a nuclear reactor.”

While zirconium components are already very much in use in reactors around the world, including Canada, CNL researchers in the MED, Advanced Fuels and Reactor Physics, and Reactor Chemistry and Corrosion departments saw an opportunity to examine the viability of producing zirconium parts using our own 3D printing equipment.

According to Read, this form of manufacturing removes key barriers when it comes to fuel development.

“The idea was actually brought to us by Andrew Bergeron in Fuel Development, who saw some advantages to 3D printing in terms of manufacturing novel nuclear fuels,” explained Read. “Traditional manufacturing is really good at making boxy shapes – items with flat surfaces and right angles. 3D printing, on the other hand, opens things up to more organic shapes. This complexity comes at no added cost for the technique, and allows us to optimize the physics without suffering the economic penalties of regular manufacturing.”

Ottawa to store and curate GLP samples and records. By implementing the required capabilities in a number of our facilities and laboratories, CNL is now able to perform GLP compliant studies’ and will now appear on the Standards Council of Canada’s Recognition Program for Good Laboratory Practices as an accredited lab.

What is the impact for CNL? The completion of high quality toxicity / efficacy studies is a critical step in the pharmaceutical industry as they require Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other regulators’ approval to move to clinical trials. GLP recognition is a label that dramatically increases the rate of acceptance of these studies by national and international regulators.

Most of the GLP services we will provide involve pre-clinical testing and studies conducted on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, other sponsors and GLP recognized organizations.

As part of the project, which was funded through AECL’s Federal Nuclear Science and Technology Work Plan, CNL explored the production of zirconium parts using two different forms of 3D printing. In the first, led by Eric Sansoucy, CNL used what is known as a laser consolidation system, which is a type of additive manufacturing process based on the ‘direct energy deposition technique.’ The second technique, which was led by Read, was completed using a Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Printing System, which prints materials using water-based liquid media.

“The team approached the project using two different 3D printing techniques, both of which yielded some very encouraging results,” explained Greg Hersak, Manager of MED. “For the first technique, CNL used its laser consolidation system, where a laser is used to melt zirconium powder particles to bond them together, layer-by-layer.

The second technique is known as a Fused Deposition Modelling system. This printer deposits a thick slurry that has zirconium powder suspended in it, which is then exposed to a halogen lamp to dry each layer, one-by-one.”

So, how did it go? According to Read, there was a lot of ‘hooting and hollering’ when they successfully printed a zirconium tugboat known as 3DBenchy, which is a small model that is specifically designed to test the accuracy and capabilities of 3D printing.

“We had to work through many different parameters and iterations, but in the end we were able to produce a very respectable 3DBenchy,” explains Read. “This model is designed with many features that are hard for 3D printers to produce, including overhanging sections, engravings, different contours, that sort of thing. The boat we produced checked most of the boxes, which we considered a big win for the team. A few of us were in the lab together when we did it, and there was definitely some celebrating once we were done.”

Read also explains that tensile tests conducted on the zirconium parts showed that the material had achieved approximately 80 per cent of the desired strength. When manufacturing components using 3D printing, there is the potential to produce small voids in the parts, which can act as initiation sites for certain failure modes, so future refinements would look to address that issue.

“While there is still room for improvement, this is definitely a significant accomplishment,” adds Hersak.

What’s next? While the project has come to an end, the team is very eager to continue to build on their work, in whatever form that may take. Any future research would most certainly look to improve

What’s really exciting is that CNL is providing top quality R&D services to support the emerging Canadian medical isotope ecosystem. By expanding our opportunities for commercial revenues, we are supporting CNL’s sustainability. The combination of GLP and our ongoing work in Actinium-225 results in a strong commercial offering to customers helping them move radiopharmaceutical therapy R&D through to clinical trials and ultimately clinical practice.

This multi-year endeavour is a true example of collaboration across CNL S&T and organizations at the Chalk River Laboratories, most notably both branches in IRED - Radiobiology & Health and Environment & Waste Technologies, Analytical Chemistry, Information Management (IM), and Corporate Quality Assurance. This was a monumental undertaking, and CNL would like to express their thanks to the entire team who worked so hard to achieve this milestone.

3DBENCHY OF ZIRCONIUM USING FDM SYSTEM

the final product, but the team also sees an opportunity to test the components in reactor-like conditions down the road, once they reach the desired quality. Brittany Rabak, a Mechanical Engineering Graduate on the MED team, explained that there are lots of ways to further refine the manufacturing process.

“We are not exactly sure what comes next, but there is an opportunity to further develop these techniques,” said Rabak. “There are other binding materials we could consider, such as wax, which would open up more possibilities. Future work could also focus on identifying the correlation between print parameters and the mechanical and microstructure properties, to produce a part that more closely matches those seen in traditionally-manufactured zirconium. Overall, there is lots we can explore to make it the best process it can be.”

According to Rabak, the project was also a great learning opportunity for her, as a recent new graduate and employee on the MED team.

Rabak just started in her new position last fall, and was very excited to work on this campaign as her very first CNL project. Among other responsibilities, Brittany helped to develop the test plan, coordinate procurement, develop a job hazard analysis, perform the testing and even write the final report. Rabak also says that it was very exciting to watch something you’ve worked on for months come to fruition.

Overall, the team believes that they are just scratching the surface of the research that could be done in this area, and hope to further demonstrate the viability of 3D printing to produce novel zirconium fuels in the future. Congratulations to everyone involved in the project, including Greg Hersak, Andrew Bergeron, Reeghan Osmond, Brittany Rabak, Ethan McNeill, Anan Abushusheh, Paul Joynes, Scott Read and Eric Sansoucy for bringing these (zirconium) parts to life.

SCIENCE COLLABORATION CENTRE

A MODERN CAMPUS NEEDS A MODERN LIBRARY A bright, beautiful new space for collaboration (complete with lounge chairs) When CNL’s new six storey, mass timber frame Science Collaboration Centre is complete in 2023, it will also serve as the new home for CNL’s Library – a beautiful, bright open concept space devoted to collaboration and study space (lounge chairs too!). Unlike the library’s original home in Building 432 and even its more recent location in Deep River since 2018, the new approximately 2,000 square foot space promotes collaboration and a relaxing space for reading. What’s more, it will welcome in-person staff to provide support, serve as a venue for special functions, and operate as a modern library, complete with the commonplace digital solutions enhancing today’s academic and research libraries.

For those who may not be as familiar with CNL’s Library, it’s an impressive collection of over 50,000 books, 750,000 external technical and scientific reports, and 900 Journal titles. The technical and scientific reports include published research from all corners of the world. And they cover an expansive range of topics in the nuclear industry, such as radionuclides, Light Water Reactors (LWRs), spent fuel storage, materials research, corrosion, particle beam fusion, nuclear waste disposal, fuel rods, hydrogen, isotopes, tritium, and muons. Of course, this complements the easy to access electronic resources, which include journals, e-books and papers.

When the new Library opens its doors in 2023, it will be staffed with a full-time librarian and patrons have direct access to the Reference Collection, new books, journals and some other select pieces that are extensively used. The remaining collection will be safely stored and preserved offsite as many other academic and research libraries

DID YOU KNOW? • •

The Library’s first computer was introduced to site in 1963 – almost 20 years before IBM came out with their first personal computer!

In the 70s and 80s the Library continued to embrace technological change and is home to John Woolston, “Father of INIS” – founder of the “International Nuclear Information System,” a global database of nuclear related articles, reports and conference papers.

have done in this digital age to secure their collections. When patrons request items stored offsite, our new Library partner, Iron Mountain, will provide the electronic scans or the physical books and Library staff will see that it is emailed to the employee or delivered to their worksite. A complementary benefit of the transition is that Library Services has been completing a comprehensive inventory of its whole collection to provide a current and easy to search library catalogue.

Without a physical location currently, you may be wondering how to access CNL’s Library if you have yet to already.

Well, Library Services has continued to provide timely service and support since going virtual. Simply visiting Library Services on myCNL will direct you to how to make requests, and staff are available to consult during business hours through a Virtual Reference Desk meeting.

And what services can you access?

Well, it’s full service, including, but not limited to: literature review requests, citation verification, branch purchase / subscriptions, copyright interpretation, current awareness, database searches, interlibrary loans and a virtual reference desk.

Interested in following this transformation? Make sure to follow our myCNL page to hear the latest updates. The team is extremely excited to soon be back where all the action is, and to be available to support our patrons in person, which we have all missed so very much!

Pictured: CNL Library Services Team (Top, L-R): Yannick Dube, Sam Luk, Alexandra Turcotte and Evan Hachey; (Bottom, L-R): Tanya Cameron, Brittany Haley and Jeannie Tilson.

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The Library is a founding member of the International Nuclear Library Network (INLN), developed in 2004-2005 by Monica Kim (Section Head of AECL’s Library Services) and Alexander Sorokin (Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Library) to expedite document delivery and share resources and expertise on the peaceful uses of nuclear sciences and technologies with other nuclear libraries. Today, it continues to be a global forum for nuclear libraries, information centres and organizations that share similar missions, with 61 members from 42 countries.

CNL ADVANCES ARIANT MODELING CODE CNL’s thermalhydraulics code evolving to support Canada’s push towards SMRs In Canada, CNL is one of the few organizations capable of supporting activities in the safety and licensing of small modular reactors (SMRs).

Although the larger industry focus in Canada is on the support of operating CANDU® reactors, recent developments are starting to shift this focus. Look to the work underway in New Brunswick with Moltex and ARC Energy, in Darlington with the selection of the GE Hitachi BWRX-300, in Chalk River with the Global First Power MMR, and growing interest in western Canada. Notably, each of these proposed projects have very different reactor designs, technologies and intended outputs. There is no ‘apples to apples’ comparison either with a current CANDU or even between the SMR options.

Not surprisingly, this creates new demands on Canada’s regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, in their assessment of incoming safety and licensing submissions for various SMR designs.

This is an important area in which CNL can help support Canada’s clean energy initiatives.

One of the key tools used to undertake safety related research is modelling and simulation. This is especially true when examining aspects of new technologies for which actual experimental data is limited. One such tool which is required to support CANDU and SMR development, licencing and ongoing operations is the system (or network) thermalhydraulics code. A system TH code is used to model the reactor response to a postulated accident scenario and to calculate the key safety parameters (e.g. maximum fuel sheath temperature) and safety margin during the accident.

ARIANT, the AlgoRIthm for Analysis of Network Thermalhydraulics, is being developed by CNL to support both CANDU and advanced reactors, including SMRs, and is a generalized network thermalhydraulics modelling tool. It can simulate two-phase (steam and water) flows and heat transfer over a wide range of temperature and pressures. These simulations provide researchers, developers and regulators critical information about how the reactor will behave both in operating and postulated accident conditions.

Recently, the Thermalhydraulics and Safety Analysis Branch team at CNL achieved a significant milestone in this work having successfully implemented non-condensable gas and solar salt fluid properties

CRL INLET HEADER SIMULATION

into ARIANT. These code capabilities now enable ARIANT to model a variety of fluid types including light and heavy water, various molten salts, liquid metals (e.g. potassium and sodium), and now noncondensable gases (eg. helium) and solar salt.

This achievement represents a unique and marketable capability that effectively supports CNL’s vision for SMR development, including the work to deploy a reactor on a CNL managed site. It also represents a significant step forward in supporting the federal government efforts to examine the use of SMR technology to help offset the use of carbon intensive diesel generation at remote mining sites. This will help to provide an efficient, low-carbon, and economically-viable power source for industrial mining processes, electricity, and district heating.

The work to continue development of the ARIANT code was made possible through AECL’s Federal Nuclear Science and Technology Work Plan (FNST), and Lab-Directed Science & Technology (LDST).

ARIANT website accepts registrations for those interested in learning more about the code capabilities. There is also a short, introductory course available online.

HERITAGE COLLEGE STUDENTS VISIT CHALK RIVER CAMPUS On Thursday, April 28, CNL was very excited to welcome a group of students from Heritage College’s Electronics and Information Technology program out of their classrooms and onto our Chalk River Laboratories campus for a site visit.

HERITAGE STUDENTS VISIT CNL’S MED LABORATORY

The students visited our Thermalhydraulics and Mechanical Equipment Development laboratories and even participated in a virtual presentation earlier in the week from our Cyber Security department in New Brunswick. CNL is always very pleased to bring future researchers and technical professionals to our site, and we want to thank the students for visiting the Chalk River Laboratories.

We hope you enjoyed your visit!

CNL’S FD&ER TEAM TACKLES DEEP BOREHOLE CLOSURE PROJECT AT CHALK RIVER SITE The CRL site was assessed to determine its suitability to host a deep Geologic Waste Management Facility (GWMF) for the permanent disposal of CRL’s intermediate-level waste. For this purpose, multidisciplinary geoscientific studies were conducted over three periods: between the 1970s and 1980s by the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program (CNFWMP), between 1992 and 1995 by the Siting Task Force (STF), and during the GWMF Project between 2006 and 2016. Of the 51 boreholes (deep and narrow holes created in the ground) drilled for these studies, 14 are still being investigated for different purposes. The remaining 37 boreholes are being decommissioned and closed by the Facilities Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation (FD&ER) Division. The Deep Boreholes Decommissioning and Closure Project is one of CNL’s milestone projects.

The legacy boreholes are located in the Outer Areas of the Chalk River site, and 23 are in the area between the Upper and Lower Bass Lakes while the remaining 14 are distributed along both shores of Maskinonge Lake. The depths of these boreholes ranges from 40 to 610 metres beneath the surface, and 25 are vertical while 12 were drilled at an angle.

The goal of borehole decommissioning and closure is to prevent groundwater movement throughout the length of the borehole, to mitigate any environmental concerns with groundwater quality. Blocking groundwater movement prevents the unnatural migration of groundwater between naturally occurring aquifers.

The scope of work of the Deep Boreholes Decommissioning and Closure Project is divided into three activity groupings: Pre-Decommissioning and Closure Activities - inspection of access roads and borehole sites, preparation of borehole site access roads and borehole site pads, and review of borehole logs.

Decommissioning and Closure Activities - down-hole visual assessment, removal of packer systems and hydrogeological equipment, and permanent sealing of the open borehole with the injection of a cement mixture grout.

Post-Decommissioning and Closure Activities - moving and storing the packer systems, removing hydrogeological equipment from the boreholes, and ensuring the boreholes are successfully backfilled to the surface.

The field component of these activities are ideally performed when temperatures are consistently above the freezing level, between the late spring and early fall period (mid-April to mid-November). The field work for the project commenced in the summer of 2021, and was paused during the late fall and winter months.

Decommissioning and closure activities included a combination of overdrilling, grinding, and flushing out the borehole, followed by pumping the cement mixture grout into the bottom of the borehole up to the ground surface, and ending with trimming the protruding borehole collar (opening) level with the ground surface.

Grout samples were collected during decommissioning activities to verify the strength of the grout after curing. All boreholes were decommissioned and closed following industry best practices.

During the 2021 field season, CNL staff oversaw the decommissioning and closure of 20 boreholes by an external contractor. The project is on schedule, and the remaining 17 boreholes will be decommissioned and closed this summer.

A restoration plan is being developed to restore the borehole sites and immediate surroundings to resemble the pre-existing natural conditions, thereby decreasing CNL’s legacy footprint at CRL. OVERDRILLING A BOREHOLE

MOCK-UP: THE BROKK ROBOT WILL BE USED TO DISCONNECT THE TANK FROM THE CONCRETE FLOOR AND TRANSFER IT

ACTIVE STORAGE TANK REMOVAL CONTINUES Decommissioning uses full-scale mock-up to train staff for tank removal project

As we begin a new fiscal year, the decommissioning team is preparing for the removal of one of the major hazards in Building 250 (B250), the Nepheline Syenite Process Feed Tank. The origins of the tank dates back to the 1950s and is now commonly referred to as the B250 Active Storage Tank. The structure is a cylindrical shape with stainless steel walls and is roughly the size of a small domestic hot water tank. The tank, when empty, weighs approximately 120 lbs and is supported by three steel legs which are fastened to the cement floor. The tank is currently shielded in a square enclosure that is surrounded by lead bricks.

Highly acidic, radioactive and fission waste products from the Building 222 storage tanks were transferred to the tank using mobile flasks and stored until vitrification (solution converted into glass) procedures were completed. The vitrification equipment was mounted on the floors above the tank. The fission waste products were generated from the irradiated rod dissolution (rods broken apart) process in Buildings 200A and 220 as well as work conducted in the ancillary facilities to the NRX reactor while it was in operation.

The tank was assumed to be dry, however, liquid contents were discovered during scoping and characterization activities that were conducted in December 2020. After further investigation, the team confirmed that approximately 14 L of liquid remains in the tank; a combination of nuclear material and nitric acid, a hazardous and highly corrosive chemical. Radiological scoping work revealed that the highest gamma radiation dose rates were 2,600 mRem/hr near the centre of the tank when unshielded and 750 mRem/hr with the lead brick shielding reinstalled. To put it into perspective, the annual dose limit for a New Energy Worker is 5,000 mRem. How will the team safely remove the tank from B250? Planning for the project began in 2020 and was accelerated once the results of the scoping and sampling activities were received in March 2021. The field work will be completed in three stages and with separate work plans developed. To prepare field staff for the highly hazardous work, a full-scale mock-up of the work area was constructed in Building 451 in the fall of 2021. The team will train and engage in scenarios,

including full-dress practices, using the mock-up until they are fully skilled in the process.

Work plan one will focus on mobilizing and staging the work area. A dress area for staff, a waste laydown area and an equipment laydown area will be created. The walls and infrastructure of the rooms will be re-configured as needed to ensure adequate air flow and ventilation, and elevated ramps and lifts will be installed at key entry points.

Work plan two will focus on safely transferring the remaining liquid from the tank into a custom designed receiving flask. The engineered flask is being procured from an external vendor. A specially designed glove bag and cart equipped with a peristaltic (motorized) pump and drip tray will be used to transfer the contents from the tank into the flask using sturdy transfer lines. The filled primary container is located in a secondary shielding flask that will be transported to Building 234.

Any remaining liquid in the base of the tank will be solidified using a solidifying agent called Nochar N960.

The team at Building 234 will safely pump the liquid contents from the primary container into a waste can within the shielded walls of the Hot Cell. The liquid transferred into the waste cans will be carefully mixed with cement powder to solidify it. The waste cans will be placed into the building’s disposal flasks and transported to the Waste Management Areas for safe storage.

The final work plan will encompass the removal of the lead brick shielding around the tank and disconnecting the tank from the concrete floor; Field Technicians will use a remotely operated Brokk robot, reducing the radiation exposure to staff. Once the tank is disconnected, it will be coated with CC-Fix; a protective coating that is used to seal radiological contamination in place. The tank will be placed inside a custom designed shielded contamination container and transported to the Waste Management Areas for safe storage.

The team began training for the field work in early February, and will continue to participate in mock-up activities for a number of months until the team and equipment are fully developed.

SAFETY SURVEY RESULTS & NEXT STEPS An update from Jeff Willman, VP of HSSE, on safety excellence at CNL The wait is over! I imagine many of you have been eagerly awaiting the results of our Safety Perception, Chemistry and Climate Survey as well as an update on recent efforts.

We want to once again thank staff who took the time to participate.

We received an impressive 78 per cent response rate, just shy of our 80 per cent goal! Our staff’s continued dedication to safety is what makes CNL a workplace unlike any other.

After reviewing the survey answers, past and present safety data from CNL, as well as 30 wide-ranging focus groups and 11 one-on-one interviews, we found a few trends worth talking about. The leading overarching theme found was that, while workers at CNL subjectively feel that we as an organization have the highest attention of safety to-date, there remains room to grow and improve, ensuring the gaps identified throughout this process can and will be filled.

implementation plan. In line with our Safety Excellence Vision, and at the forefront of this strategy is the need to engage and empower all staff with regards to personifying safety, and fostering greater communication, accountability, and collaboration across all sites.

This will be achieved by accomplishing the 15 planned objectives which align with the vision, and includes 65 actions over the four years. In 2022-23, 45 actions will be initiated with 16 planned for completion in year one. The Safety Excellence Strategy has been uploaded to myCNL and is available on the Safety Excellence webpage under HSSE. Next Steps • Bi-weekly meetings will be held with the SET and HSSE core team to discuss and review progress against activities • The implementation plan will be updated and shared with stakeholders on a monthly basis • Quarterly meetings will take place with SET members and ProAct Safety to review progress and strategy • A Safety Perception Survey will be administered in Q4 to measure progress over the previous year

Progress to Date Since November, we have covered a lot of ground. The Safety Excellence Team (SET) was formed, representing working groups from all of our major CNL missions and sites to ensure the concerns of workers do NOT go unheard. This remains above all, a grassroots initiative, and with that, you are the key advocate!

Additionally, the webpage is currently undergoing a refresh and will include a redesigned layout to facilitate access and retrieval of information, plus new features such as automated submission of safety successes. Additional information will be shared in the coming weeks on the implementation plan and the specific year one actions as well as the safety success submission process. The safety excellence webpage is where all things related to the initiative can be found - check back often for updates as things progress!

The data from this survey, along with the intel gathered from oneon-ones and focus groups, has been analyzed extensively and used by the SET to develop a comprehensive strategy and a four-year

If you have questions, ideas or suggestions you’d like to share, we want to hear from you! You can reach out to a member of the SET or contact the HSSE core team via email (culturesurvey@cnl.ca).

NEW FACES: 2022 MARCH Ayyagari, Aditya Gicala, Patrick Kawsar Zaman, Shafi Klausen, Bretton Naik, Harshil Pamser, Darren Priyan, Catherine Voldock, Miranda Budgell, Brigette Lu, Winnie MacDonald, Tracey Bertrand, Kyle Buelow, Adam Coulas, Serena

RESEARCH SCIENTIST R&D TECHNOLOGIST R&D SCIENTIST / ENGINEER JOB SUPERVISOR RADIOCHEMICAL TECHNOLOGIST PLUMBER / STEAMFITTER CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGIST CIVIL DESIGNER OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSE RECRUITMENT COORDINATOR EMPLOYEE TRANSITION COORDINATOR WELDER R&D MATERIAL TECHNOLOGIST CONTAMINATION MONITOR

Fatemi, Majid Lee, Min March, Will Mitchell, Meloney Ogilvie, Laura Prince, Nathan Recoskie, Michael

Reid, Scott Senuik, Alexandra Strack, Jeff Yamalezi, Wanzelani Lawson, Susan Wegner, Steven

Voyageur is a publication of the Corporate Communications department of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Comments and content are welcomed at philip.kompass@cnl.ca.

Additional contributors to this issue include Jeff Willman, Antonette Chau, Brittany Rabak, Scott Read, Greg Hersak, Joe McBrearty, Lou Riccoboni, Tanya Cameron, David Wang and Nusret Aydemir

PROJECT LEADER DIRECTOR, WASTE SERVICES JUNIOR SOFTWARE DESIGNER QAC REPRESENTATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIALIST UTILITY WORKER MECHANICAL MAINTAINER / PLUMBER AND STEAMFITTER DECONTAMINATION MONITOR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER HSSE ADVISOR TALENT ACQUISITION ADVISOR SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION SPECIALIST