The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ERS -- Just 25 miles from Port Perry Creating by J. B. McClelland On April 13, myself and Port Perry Star publisher Peter Hvid- sten accepted an invitation to tour the Nuclear Generating Station at Pickering. Although the Pickering plant receives about 20,000 visitors each year, neither Peter nor my- self had ever toured the plant prior to last week. And we both felt a little un- easy about the fact that we had never made the effort to tour such an imporant complex, despite the fact it is only about 25 miles from Port Perry. Our guide for the two hour tour that morning was corporate relations officer Jack Muir who has worked for Ontario Hydro for 22 years. His knowledge was impres- sive, rattling off facts and statis- tics, easily answering all the ques- tions we asked about the huge complex itself and the nuclear power industry in general. I had some prior knowledge about nuclear energy and CANDU reactors, mostly gleaned from my child-hood and teen years growing up near Chalk River, Ont., the site where Canada's first experi- mental reactor was built and per- fected. I grew up hearing about CANDU, fuel rods, fission, and heavy water, though I must admit my understanding of the science of nuclear energy was superficial at best. And it still is. Thus, this article will not in any way attempt to explain the physics of what happens in a nu- clear reactor. Nor will it delve into nuclear politics at the domes- tic or international level. It will instead contain some of my own personal impressions Pickering Generating station are not seen In these white "moon suits". The hood- ed suits are normally used during maintenance Workers at proceedures, but could also be used In the case of an emergency. The above photo Is of a dis- play model In the plant. Ee ae 3 IV eratli The nerve centre of Pickering Generating Station : wo uy AY 69 98 we SW" ------ AWS SAT FY Is the large control rooms, one seen here in the above photo. There are two of these rooms at Picker- ing, one monitoring reactors 1-4 and the other reac- tors 5-8. The entire four walls of this large room are and some factual information about nucear power generation and the Pickering plant with its eight reactor units. There are numerous different types of nuclear power plants in operation around the world. They all do essentially the same thing: generate electrical power from the eat created when uranium atoms are split. The eight reactors at the Pick- ering plant, indeed all the nuclear reactors in Canada are of the CANDU design, developed and perfected by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and Ontario Hydro. They are known as the Cana- dian reactor. Indeed, the widely recognized word CANDU is an ac- ronym using the first three letters of CANada along with Deuterium Uranium, The heart of the nuclear power plant is the reactor. It is here where the splitting (fissioning) of nuclear atoms takes place, which creates the heat which turns water to steam and drives the turbines which generate electricity. When atoms are split, neu- trons are given off, and a modera- tor is needed to trap or slow the neutrons down so the chain reac- tion can be sustained. The moderator used in the CANDIJ reactor is heavy water, which literally is about 10 per cent heavier than ordinary water. It also contains an extra neutron in its hydrogen atoms. The reactor at Chernobyl in the USSR, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, used gra- phite as its moderator. I really did not expect to see the workers at the Pickering plant walking around in white "moon suits," gas masks and rubber foot- wear. Most workers I saw wore orange hard hats and ordinary brown coveralls. Jack Muir, our guide, as a public relations man wore a business suit. In the two main control rooms, the opera- tors, the people who actually run the reactors and the other systems, are dressed casually. If the reactors are the heart of the generating plant, the control rooms are the nerve centres. Each control room runs four of the eight reactors. The walls are pan- els of controls, monitors, switch- es and coloured lights. The at- moshpere is low key and subdued . The operators do not sit glued in front of the controls with their fingers tight on some break- er switch. Jack, our guide, howev- er, warns us not to take photos using flash in the control room. And as Peter begins to take pho- tos (without flash) Jacks keeps a wary eye on him, fearful that his hard hat may accidently fall off and hit a control switch, or in the process of taking photos, he make inadvertently back into a panel. I'm tempted to ask Jack what might happen if Peter's hard hart fell off and tripped some switch, but decide against it. The view most people get of the Pickering Nuclear Plant is from their car as they drive along Highway 401. From the highway, the most visible aspect of the plant is the maze of transmission towers. The huge domed reactors buildings seem to blend in with the industrial landscape of the area. But from up close, one soon gets a sense of the magnitude of this complex. The plant occupies nearly 500 acres and is three- quarters of a kilometre long. The turbines are located in the turbine hall, a huge building some six stories high. There are 32 large pipes (four from each re- actor) which carry the steam to the turbines. Strolling through the turbine hall there is a constant hum just loud enough to make normal con- versation difficult. I am somewhat 12 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 19, 1988 covered with switches, guages, flashing lights and electricity from the Atom monitors, all of which are important In monitoring the reactors. Above, Jack Muir (right) explains the oper- ation proceedures taking place to (left) John McClel- land and Larry Emmerson. surprised at the lack of workers in the turbine hall. It is virtually de- serted. But it is here where the 4320 megawatts of electricla pow- er are generated, enough to handle the needs of Metro Toronto, says Jack. When the bundles of uranium fuel are used up or spent, they are stored in baskets in water. The three storage areas look like swimming pools. In six to eight years, this storage capacity will be at the maximum. Finding a safe and permanent storage meth- od for the spent fuel is a problem still facing the nuclear industry, though tests are on-going to see if they can be put in bed-rock forma- tions deep under-ground in con- crete containers. On the issue of nuclear safety, the philosophy is to do two things: take every measure possi- ble to limit the chance of an acci- dent happening, but if one does, take every step possible to mini- (Tum to page 14) This photo was taken from an outer hall in the re- actor building, looking through the massive, tighly sealed and locked door leading Into an internal cham- ber. Beyond the chamber door (centre of photo), Is one of the eight nuclear reactors at the PI Generation Station. ckering i Eo) !