Building a nuclear facility is complex and requires years of planning and a collaborative approach, but once complete, the Advanced Nuclear Materials Research Centre (ANMRC) will be one of the largest nuclear research facilities ever constructed in Canada.
Construction officially began in early September in Chalk River, Ont. The over $800 million laboratory research complex is being delivered using an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model.
“That’s been a huge benefit for us in this project and especially a technically complex facility like this,” said Steve Innes, deputy vice-president of capital, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).
“There are lots of engineering hurdles to overcome before you get to the field and construct it. This contract model allowed us to put a mix of both the designers and builders in the same room with CNL and provide a lot of engagement and dialogue of what the facility needs to do and how it needs to be operated safely.”
The 10,000-square-metre complex will play an important role in advancing next generation nuclear technologies to support Canada’s climate action plans and be critical to the life extension and long-term reliability of existing reactors, including Canada’s fleet of CANDU reactors, indicates a release. The centre is part of the Government of Canada’s $1.2 billion investment in the site revitalization of the Chalk River Laboratories.
“The Advanced Nuclear Materials Research Centre really represents the flagship project of that revitalization mission,” said Innes. “There are several buildings that are underway now.
“This one is really the key for our science technology and research efforts going forward.”
The purpose is for conducting post radiation examination supporting CNL’s nuclear research mission. It contains about 23 labs and 12 hot cells, which are specific areas where post radiation examination is performed.
“CNL does have hot cell facilities now that are dated, they are due for replacement, which is all part of our revitalization. This facility is renewing those facilities and creating a new facility that will drive our research mission for the future,” Innes explained.
The construction team on the project is a Chandos Bird Sullivan (CBS) Joint Venture. As a nuclear facility, the building has to have certain design features but it was also important to take into consideration the surrounding campus where 3,000 people work.
“For the exterior of the building there are some requirements from a nuclear design point of view. The envelope has to be protected,” said Nick Szaszkiewicz, project director at Bird Construction. “We’ve got the labs and the hot cells, but we’ve also got some office space and staff quarters. We’re building those out of mass timber, putting some more glass in those areas, making them face the quad space and the greenspace to provide a little bit of a nicer space for people that are going to work there.”
In addition to the revitalization, there is a large environmental restoration effort on the site as well which involves decommissioning the old facilities. The new lab is one of many aged facilities that is being replaced.
“There were facilities there a few years ago but they were one of the first ones decommissioned,” said Innes.
“The last couple of years we’ve been doing service relocates and really prepping the area for construction. That’s another advantage of having the full team on board early. Once we locked in that footprint, we were able to go ahead and do things like relocating storm sewers that were in the existing footprint and not only that but daylighting all the other services in the area to be sure that construction was ready to go and safe.”
Mass excavation and shoring work has begun for the building foundation. Working on a functioning campus also has its challenges.
“While we’re decommissioning facilities, doing that environmental restoration and building new ones, we still have a science mandate to deliver for the Government of Canada and other clients,” said Innes.
“This facility itself is right in the heart of our built-up area so certainly there are a lot of logistical challenges. The building takes up the majority of the footprint that we have available.”
The IPD model allowed a lot of co-ordination and pre-planning to happen early.
“Because we were onboarded at the early stages of the project, we have had alot of time for pre-planning, so all those constraints were discussed and known and planned through,” Szaszkiewicz said.
“There are some really interesting things we’re doing on the project to sort of try and meet all the requirements but also make it an efficient build. We’re prefabricating a lot of the complex nuclear components in the building that’s being done in Cambridge with Eclipse (Automation). They are able to basically build the entire hot cell structure inside of a facility.”
The foundation design is also interesting.
“To meet some of the seismic requirements on the project we’re having to excavate down to bedrock and fill it back up with a low weight cementitious material,” Szaszkiewicz noted.
Construction on the facility is expected to be complete by 2028.
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