Scientists from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories are using the Canadian Light Source on the USask campus to explore how advanced fuels for small nuclear reactors could be used to reach net zero by 2050.

Mouna Saoudi explains that advanced fuels combine uranium oxide, which is the main element that has been used in nuclear fuel for decades, with the naturally occurring element thorium. She says there are many advantages to mixing the two elements, including increased efficiency and better in-reactor performance. The idea is to come up with the optimum fuel composition that would have better in-reactor performance than that or uranium oxide. Saoudi says the CLS was integral for this project.