CANDU reactor
Sign in to saveAlso known as Canada Deuterium Uranium reactor
Canadian PHWR nuclear reactor design
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- pressurized heavy water reactor
- Image
- CANDU Reactor Schematic.svg
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- Commons category
- CANDU
- coolant
- heavy water
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via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Qinshan Phase III units 1 and 2, located in Zhejiang, China.
The CANDU (Canada deuterium uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide (heavy water) moderator and its use of (originally, natural) uranium fuel. CANDU reactors were first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Canadian General Electric, and other companies. It was later exported, and in 2026 there were 26 operational CANDU reactors worldwide: 17 in Canada, three in South Korea, two each in Romania and China, and one each in India and Argentina.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “CANDU reactor” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.