Dennis Carr, CNL President & CEO, voices confidence in direction of Canada’s national nuclear laboratory following achievements in clean energy, public health and environmental cleanup
2026 is poised to be a year of ‘progress and opportunity,’ says newly installed President and CEO at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Dennis Carr. According to the senior executive in charge of operating nuclear research and environmental remediation projects at sites across the country on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the company is well-positioned to realize meaningful progress following a productive year of significant achievements in its clean energy, health sciences and environmental cleanup programs of work, among many others.
Under the direction of AECL and guided by a corporate strategy known as Vision 2030, CNL is fulfilling three strategic priorities of national importance: restoring and protecting the environment, advancing clean energy technologies, and contributing to the health of Canadians. While Nuclear Laboratory Partners of Canada (NLPC) assumed responsibility for the ownership and management of CNL on December 11, 2025, serving as the next contractor to lead CNL under a Government-owned, Contractor-Operated (GoCo) management model with AECL, Carr confirms that the ongoing projects and programs headed by CNL are not intended to change.
“As we enter a new contract period for the operations of Canada’s national nuclear laboratory, I want to express how impressed I am at the breadth of the work that goes on at CNL, and the ambitious nuclear science and technology research that is underway to address issues of national importance,” commented Carr. “In 2025, CNL made advances in clean energy, from conventional nuclear energy and synthetic fuel to fusion, which position Canada to better fight climate change; we helped establish a production process for a rare and promising new medical isotope, Actinium-225, to fight cancer; and, we continued to advance environmental remediation and nuclear cleanup projects across the country, safely addressing Canada’s nuclear legacy liabilities.”
Some CNL accomplishments from 2025 include:
- Construction of the world’s first fully integrated, commercially relevant fusion fuel cycle – UNITY-2 – is now underway at the Chalk River Laboratories campus, led by a joint venture between CNL and Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd (KF). CNL also partnered with AECL, Ontario Power Generation and Stellarex to establish a national Centre for Fusion Energy.
- CNL, through its joint venture Actineer, was part of the first Canadian research team to develop the processes, targets, chemistry and facilities to produce Actinium-225 using Radium-226 targets and a cyclotron. This achievement makes this incredibly rare medical isotope available for Canadian drug developers and patients, while converting a nuclear liability into a promising new cancer treatment.
- The Chalk River Laboratories became the first Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) certified laboratory in Canada that is capable of performing radioactive work and pre-clinical radiopharmaceutical contract research, presenting a wide range of new and exciting commercial and partnership opportunities.
- CNL successfully completed the transportation of the Gentilly-1 used fuel to the Chalk River Laboratories, safely transporting the material and helping to reduce the ongoing costs by consolidating used fuel at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories.
- This year, CNL expanded Indigenous participation in environmental monitoring at the Whiteshell Laboratories and Chalk River Laboratories, signed agreements with six Indigenous communities engaging on the Historic Waste Program, and facilitated information sharing, including through benchmarking trips, on our decommissioning and waste management mission.
- CNL and AECL signed a five-year extension with all nine universities currently participating in CNL’s Academic Partnership Program, which is designed to establish a talent pipeline for Canada, encourage collaborative research projects, and facilitate better access to CNL resources.
- CNL has advanced multiple projects to advance synthetic fuel production, including a project to explore the viability of recycling carbon dioxide ‘waste’ into synthetic fuel, and a second that seeks to convert wood waste into drop-in ready renewable diesel fuel.
- CNL has completed the fabrication and construction of a one-of-a-kind waste retrieval system – the Standpipes and Bunkers Waste Retrieval System (SBWRS) – developed to retrieve, sort and repackage high-hazard radioactive waste from Whiteshell’s standpipes and bunkers. The system is now undergoing operability testing.
- As part of the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI), CNL completed the environmental cleanup and reopening of Lions Park, restoring one of the community’s cherished green spaces. That work included planting approximately 480 trees and 400 shrubs, the installation of a gazebo and picnic tables, and the creation of new bike and walking paths.
- Construction of Canada’s largest nuclear research facility – the Advanced Nuclear Materials Research Centre (ANMRC) – continues to make progress. The south side of the facility that will house the collaboration spaces and material characterization laboratories is now fully enclosed, with detailed interior work scheduled to begin in early 2026.
- CNL engaged territorial governments, Indigenous economic development organizations, Inuit and First Nations organizations and associations, industry leaders, and community partners in Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, to share science-based insights on small modular reactors and micro-modular reactors, fostering trust and collaboration for sustainable energy and economic development in Canada’s North.
- At CNL’s National Innovation Centre for Cyber Security in Fredericton, New Brunswick, CNL hosted an interactive cyber security exercise with an international participant and a wide range of industry observers, simulating an insider cyber attack, to strengthen industry collaboration related to cyber security, engineering and operations.
“On behalf of the entire executive team, I want to express my thanks to the CNL team, who brought all these accomplishments to life through their hard work and commitment to safety, excellence and innovation,” added Carr. “We have an ambitious program of work ahead of us in 2026, and I have no doubt that we will build on all our accomplishments this past calendar year, and contribute to a brighter, more sustainable and prosperous future for all Canadians.”
To learn more about CNL, including its missions, projects, and programs, please visit www.cnl.ca.
About CNL
As Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology laboratory and working under the direction of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), CNL is a world leader in the development of innovative nuclear science and technology products and services. Guided by an ambitious corporate strategy known as Vision 2030, CNL fulfills three strategic priorities of national importance – restoring and protecting the environment, advancing clean energy technologies, and contributing to the health of Canadians.
By leveraging the assets owned by AECL, CNL also serves as the nexus between government, the nuclear industry, the broader private sector and the academic community. CNL works in collaboration with these sectors to advance innovative Canadian products and services towards real-world use, including carbon-free energy, cancer treatments and other therapies, non-proliferation technologies and waste management solutions.
To learn more about CNL, please visit www.cnl.ca.
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CNL Contact:
Philip Kompass
Director, Corporate Communications
1-866-886-2325
