CNL, AECL break ground on Chalk River Science Collaboration Centre
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) announced at the end of July that construction had officially started on the Science Collaboration Centre at the Chalk River Laboratories campus west of Ottawa.
Scheduled for completion in the spring of 2023, the building will serve as the central planning and collaboration space for CNL’s science and technology programs. It will feature modern office space and meeting rooms for approximately 450 employees, and serve as a new home for CNL’s data centre.
“Once complete, the Science Collaboration Centre will change the way we conduct work at CNL, providing us with a modern, flexible and sustainable collaboration centre to plan and pursue our research,” said CNL President and CEO Joe McBrearty. “It is also one of a handful of new buildings that will help transform the site into a ‘smart campus,’ which is at the centre of our vision for the future of the Chalk River Laboratories.”
The Science Collaboration Centre is one of a series of enabling buildings that are being constructed at the Chalk River Laboratories site to revitalize the campus, thanks to a $1.2-billion investment over ten years from AECL and the Government of Canada.
The facility will count a number of environmentally friendly features. For example, it will use a new generation of mass timber products sourced from within Canada as the main structural construction material. It will also be built using strategies that include sustainable site development, water and energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
This and other new buildings at the Chalk River Laboratories are part of a ten-year capital program, started in 2016, that is designed to transform the Chalk River Laboratories through the revitalization of essential site infrastructure and a significant investment in new, science facilities.
In addition to the Science Collaboration Centre, a new two-storey industrial-use support facility was recently inaugurated, a new site entrance building is nearing completion, and several science facilities have been opened in the last few years, including a brand new hydrogen laboratory complex, a new materials research laboratory, and a new tritium laboratory.
“The Science Collaboration Centre is one of three buildings rising up at Chalk River that showcase the benefits of using wood to combat a changing climate while supporting the ambitious revitalization, and work, of Canada’s premier nuclear research facility,” said Marc Serré, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources.
“The Science Collaboration Centre demonstrates how the Chalk River Laboratories are being transformed into a world-class, state-of-the-art nuclear science and technology campus,” added Fred Dermarkar, President and CEO of AECL. “Not only are we investing in the future of science and innovation in Canada, but we are doing it responsibly by using sustainability as a driver for design and construction. This is the future of science, clean technologies and clean energy.”
Major investments have also been made into infrastructure improvements for the campus, including new domestic water and natural gas service, a modern sanitary sewage treatment facility, and a system to more effectively manage storm water.
The Chalk River Laboratories opened in 1944 and was the first facility outside the United States to host a nuclear reactor.
In 2015, CNL opened a new hydrogen laboratory complex, an investment of more than $55 million, on the site. The following year, CNL opened the Harriet Brooks Building materials science laboratory that represents an investment of more than $100 million.
Featured image: Parliamentary Secretary Mark Serré (centre) was among those attending the groundbreaking of the Science Collaboration Centre at the CNL Chalk River Laboratories campus on July 29. (Canadian Nuclear Laboratories)