Development of new autonomous analytical tools to track the environmental impact of SMR in remote regions

加拿大和世界各地都在努力制定战略，将便携式和小型模块化核反应堆（SMR）作为减少碳排放的替代方案之一。这种战略对仍然积极依赖柴油、天然气和重质燃油来生产离网电力的偏远和农村地区特别有益。然而，在如此偏远的地方安装SMR会带来技术和科学挑战，原因有几个。对于任何可能影响周围环境的项目，农村和偏远地区居民对SMR项目的社会接受程度将取决于对当地社区的保证，即：1）此类项目对环境的影响有限，2）适当的监测方案，3）在核设施周围地区提供并部署强制性工具，在本项目中，我们建议开发两个监控物质（铀及其同位素特征，铍）的监测平台，这两个物质分别与SMR的新型燃料和一次冷却剂有关。基于磁提取耦合光子-电子-拒绝-阿尔法液体闪烁（PERALS）和荧光捕获探针的监测平台预计将产生高效和可现场部署的单元，能够在环境水平上自主报告哨兵物种浓度。（提供来自偏远地点的两种监控物种的实时可靠数据以及开发后现场补救数据）和有关公民/社区（在其领土上开采SMR之前、期间和之后监测环境中的自然和人为来源）。

There have been significant efforts deployed in Canada and worldwide in envisioning strategies to produce electricity from portable and small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) as one of the alternatives to reduce carbon emissions. Such strategies would be particularly beneficial in remote and rural regions that still actively rely on diesel, natural gas and heavy fuel oil to generate off-grid electricity. Yet, installing SMR in such remote locations poses technical and scientific challenges for several reasons. As for any project that could impact its surrounding environment, social acceptance of SMR projects in rural and remote population will be based, amongst other things, on the assurance, for local communities, that such projects have 1) limited environmental impacts, 2) proper monitoring programs, 3) mandatory tools are available and deployed in the areas surrounding the nuclear installations, and 4) results are promptly reported to local communities.For this project, we are proposing to develop monitoring platforms for two sentinel species (uranium and its isotopic signature, beryllium) that are relevant to SMR in terms of novel fuels and primary coolant, respectively. Monitoring platforms based on magnetic extraction coupled to Photon - Electron - Rejecting - Alpha Liquid Scintillation (PERALS) and fluorescent capture probe are expected to yield efficient and field-deployable units able to autonomously report sentinel species concentration at the environmental level.This project would benefit both regulators (providing real-time and reliable data from remote sites for two sentinel species as well as data for post-explotation site remediation) and concerned citizens/communities (monitoring both natural and anthropogenic sources in the environment, prior, during and following the exploitation of SMR on their territories).