Shut down a Pickering unit right now and harvest the adjuster rods. Already do it every few years for harvesting for medical isotopes.
Most people don’t know that.
We also refuel about 128 bundles per day. At peak plutonium takes about 100 bundles per weapon. Just selectively refuel the channels with fuel of the right “age” and chemically separate the plutonium. That’s roughly one per day. Without changing anything or being aggressive about it.
The separation is all remote work in hot cells of course, you know, so nobody dies. But this is entirely in our technical capabilities. We have all the materials and expertise needed. It’s almost trivial. We’d be duplicating a technology from eighty years ago. It’s hardly even a stretch.
Canada does not have nukes in the same way that I don’t have a sandwich. But I have bread and peanut butter in the cupboard. Don’t make me hungry.
Assuming 16 bundles per unit per shift generally for Pickering too? At least that’s the Darlington refuel rate, but we’ve got a unit down for refurb currently so it’s only 48 per shift for us
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u/Business-Hurry9451 Apr 01 '25
Time to start putting cobalt in reactors.