Geotechnical and Structural Paradigms for the Design, Implementation, and Operation of Small Modular Reactors in Canada's North

核电作为一种清洁能源，对北方地区的经济发展起着至关重要的作用。其他清洁能源，如太阳能、风能和地热，提供间歇性和/或部分电力，对于孤立的微型电网社区的长期解决方案并不完全可行。此外，加拿大北极的地缘政治重要性要求在这些偏远地区有可行和持续的能源来源。与传统核电站(NPP)相比，SMR被认为更安全、更具成本效益、更灵活，需要更少的资本投入和更短的建设周期。这些特点使SMR成为严重依赖柴油和其他化石燃料的偏远社区的理想能源。SMR将取代化石燃料，为家庭和重工业提供热量和电力，将帮助加拿大实现到2050年实现净零排放的承诺。尽管与核电厂相比，SMR建造速度更快，实施也更容易，但仍有许多问题需要解决，特别是在受气候变暖和相应的永久冻土退化不利影响的脆弱(亚北极)地区。该研究项目的主要目标是为加拿大北部永久冻土区小型模块化反应堆(SMR)的设计、实施和运行开发结构和岩土工程范例。目前全球有50多个SMR原型，它们具有不同的模块化和可扩展性--都在争先恐后地采用。我们的愿景是开发一种时空多方面的SMR选址协议，考虑加拿大北部不同地点现有SMR的不同属性，并在气候变化和地质灾害的背景下为永久冻土地基制定一种开创性的设计方法。我们的研究涵盖了不同的领域，包括冻土工程、岩土工程、地质力学、随机性和气候非平稳性、气候和地质灾害的高分辨率监测和建模、地球物理、信号处理、计算机科学和数据科学。

Nuclear power, as a clean energy source, plays a crucial role for economic development of the northern regions. Other sources of clean energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal provide intermittent and/or partial electricity, and are not entirely practical for long-term solution in islanded, micro-grid communities. Further, the geopolitical importance of Canada's Arctic necessitates a viable and continuous source of energy in such remote areas. Compared to conventional nuclear power plants (NPP), SMRs are considered safer, more cost effective, and more flexible, requiring smaller capital input with shorter construction periods. Such features make SMRs an ideal energy source in remote communities that are heavily dependent on diesel and other fossil fuels. SMRs, which would replace fossil fuels for heat and power generation to homes and heavy industries, will assist Canada in meeting its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. While SMRs are faster to construct and easier to implement compared to NPPs, many concerns still need to be addressed especially in vulnerable (sub)arctic regions that are adversely affected by climate warming and corresponding permafrost degradation. The main objective of this research project is to develop structural and geotechnical paradigms for the design, implementation, and operation of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in the northern Canadian permafrost regions. There are currently over 50 SMR prototypes globally with different modularity and scalability - all vying for adoption. Our vision is to develop a spatiotemporal multifaceted protocol for SMRs site selection considering the different attributes of existing SMRs for different sites in Canada's North and a seminal design methodology for permafrost foundations in the context of climate change and geohazards. Our proposed research encompasses different fields including permafrost engineering, geotechnical engineering, geomechanics, stochastics and climate non-stationarity, high-resolution monitoring and modeling of climatic and geohazards, geophysics, signal processing, computer science, and data science.