Chalk River

NUCLEAR NRU EMERGENT REPAIRY

Job Scope

Canada’s National Research Universal Reactor (NRU) emergent repair. In May, 2009 NRU was shut down upon the discovery of stress corrosion cracking in the reactor vessel wall. Further investigation revealed several areas of wall thinning of the aged reactor aluminum wall.

Liburdi-GAPCO's Scope

Develop a repair plan to return the reactor to service and assist AECL in the site execution. Repair plan included the development of all the associated remote welding robotics as well as fabrication and training on all the mock ups.

HOW LIBURDI GAPCO IMPROVED THE PROJECT

By using Liburdi, the Owner/Client was able to return the NRU back to service. There were no other viable repair options for this aluminum vessel. Nuclear vessels are most commonly fabricated from steel rather than aluminum. It was Liburdi’s unique combination of Aerospace Materials background and advanced robotics that made this repair possible.

OVERALL SUCCESS
The Canadian Nuclear Society awarded Liburdi Innovator of the year and AECL awarded Liburdi Supplier of the year for their role in bringing the NRU back online under extreme tension.