Canada’s first female nuclear physicist honoured at Darlington power plant in Clarington
Published October 2, 2024 at 10:01 am
A tunnel boring machine that will be used in the construction of small modular reactors at the Darlington Nuclear plant will be named in honour of Canada’s first female nuclear physicist and one of the first people to discover radon.
Harriet Brooks (1876-1933) is most famous for her research in radioactivity and for discovering atomic recoil and the transmutation of elements in radioactive decay. Brooks, who fought against chauvinistic attitudes throughout her career – she was deprived of scholarships because of her gender while at McGill University in Montreal and was told she couldn’t marry and still continue her work – was compared to Marie Curie (who she met) for her accomplishments.
Brooks was also among the first persons to discover radon and try to determine its atomic mass. She died from a blood disorder that was presumed to be leukaemia from radiation poisoning.
Harriet Brooks (1876-1933). Born Exeter, Ontario
Site preparation work on North America’s first fleet of commercial small modular reactors (SMRs) is well underway at the plant west of Bowmanville and the construction team has completed a retaining wall for the launch shaft of the massive tunnel boring machine, which will be used to drill the condenser cooling water tunnel path.
The highly specialized excavating machine, also known as a ‘mole,’ is used to create tunnels for roads, railways, subways, pipelines, and other underground structures.
The soon-to-be-named Harriet Brooks tunnel boring machine is currently being manufactured in Europe and is expected to be on site next summer.
Tunnel boring machine
In the meantime, Ontario Power Generation asked for names for the machine and received more than 100 submissions before choosing Brooks.
Her legacy was also honoured with a portrait at OPG’s Darlington Energy Complex as part of the Great Women Portrait Project.
Previously, OPG employed a tunnel boring machine to create a 10.2-kilometre-long tunnel to increase generating capacity at the Sir Adam Beck hydro complex in Niagara Falls. The name of that machine was affectionately dubbed ‘Big Becky’ in honour of Sir Adam Beck, the first Chair of OPG’s predecessor company, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.
The SMR construction team at Darlington has also been busy this summer drilling for the reactor building shaft retaining wall and completing preliminary work for SMR Units 2-4.
Pending regulatory approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the project will be ready for nuclear construction work to begin next year. The first SMR unit is expected to be in commercial operation by the end of 2029, with the rest of the units coming online in the mid-2030s.
One completed, the four SMRs at the plant will produce a total of 1,200 MW, or enough energy to power 1,200 homes.
Future small modular reactor facility at the Darlington Nuclear plant in Clarington