Developing Forensic Biomarkers for Fish Killed by Cold Shock and Impinged at Nuclear Power Plant Water Cooling Intakes

涉及坎杜反应堆的核电生产需要使用从邻近水体抽水的直通冷却回路。由于大量的水被“吸入”到冷却回路中，滤网被用来防止鱼被卷走。鱼可能会被撞击到屏幕上，坊间观察表明，大规模撞击事件与冷休克事件有关。水温可能在几个小时内下降15摄氏度，这会削弱游泳能力，并可能是致命的。冷冲击是一种自然现象，但随着气候变化和极端天气事件的发生，这类事件正变得越来越常见。核电运营商被要求监测撞击并向监管机构报告计数数据，以便他们可以就对鱼类种群造成的损害进行赔偿谈判。然而，如果受到冲击的鱼类因冷休克事件而受损或死亡，否则它们就不会受到冲击，核电行业(和电力用户)可能没有必要对这些损失进行赔偿。为此，该项目的目标是开发能够确定受到核电站冲击的鱼类是否经历过冷休克的生物标志物。这一合作项目将电力行业先进技术开发和应用的领先者Kinectrics有限公司与几位在鱼类生物标记物开发和应用方面具有经验的学者结合在一起。这个为期一年的项目将涉及旨在确定哪些生物标记物是冷休克特有的，这如何随冷休克的程度和持续时间而变化，以及这些生物标记物在已经死亡不同时间段的鱼类中的表现的实验。总体而言，这项工作将使行业合作伙伴能够确定冷休克是否是大规模鱼类死亡事件的原因。该项目将涉及培训HQP，他们将处于有利地位，在包括工业和政府在内的各个部门工作。

Nuclear power production involving the CANDU reactors requires the use of once-through cooling loops that draw water from adjacent waterbodies. Because of the large volume of water "sucked" into the cooling loops, screens are used to prevent fish from becoming entrained. Fish can become impinged on the screens and anecdotal observations suggest that mass impingement events are associated with cold shock events. Water temperatures may drop as much as 15 degrees C in a matter of hours which impairs swimming ability and can be lethal. Cold shock is a natural phenomenon but with climate change and extreme weather events, such events are becoming more common. Nuclear power operators are required to monitor impingement and report the count data to regulators so that they can negotiate compensation for the harm caused to fish populations. Yet, if the impinged fish are impaired or killed because of cold shock events such that otherwise they would not have been impinged, compensation for those losses by the nuclear power industry (and electricity users) would potentially not be necessary. To that end, the goal of this project is to develop biomarkers that are able to determine if fish that are impinged at nuclear power plants have experienced cold shock. This partnership project brings together Kinectrics Ltd which is a leader in the development and application of advanced technologies for the power industry along with several academics with experience in fish biomarker development and application. This 1 year project will involve experiments intended to determine which biomarkers are unique to cold shock, how this varies with the extent and duration of cold shock, and how the biomarkers perform in fish that have been dead for various time periods. Collectively, this body of work will enable the industry partner to identify whether cold shock is a causal agent for mass fish mortality events. The project will involve the training of HQP who would be well-positioned to work in various sectors including industry and government.