In December 2017 the nuclear heritage group moved into its present home at 51 Poplar and issued an appeal to the nuclear community for donations of artifacts. Colin Orpen responded to say that in a corner of his basement he had a “partial” artifact that he had rescued from the landfill during the latter part of his career with AECL-CANDU at Sheridan Park.
The artifact was a wooden base that had once supported a replica Pickering fuel bundle. A plaque on the base reads; ”Pickering Fuel Bundle presented to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited by Canadian General Electric. The Fuel Bundle was designed and developed under the Canadian Nuclear Program. CGE will fabricate 19000 of these bundles for Ontario Hydro’s Pickering Generating Station”.
Although the artifact was welcomed by the Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage (SPCNHI), the lack of the fuel bundle somewhat detracted from its significance and it ended up on a lower shelf of a display unit and was mostly overlooked.
Moving forward now almost five years, the Society recently received a call from Ann Marie Finley-Spears. She and her husband were driving through Deep River the following day and had two artifacts they thought the Society might want. They had a replica fuel bundle and a replica single fuel element.
The name Finley might ring a bell for many people who worked at Chalk River during the period from about 1960 to 1990. Frank Finley was an extraordinarily-talented public affairs speaker and tour guide. Ann Marie is his daughter and had two of the important demonstration props that he used during his many speaking engagements across Canada – a 28-element Pickering fuel bundle and a single fuel element loaded with lead to simulate the weight of a uranium-loaded element.
The Society was very pleased to accept the donation and, although this bundle may not be THE bundle originally presented to AECL by CGE, it has now been mounted on the base donated years earlier by Colin Orpen and occupies a prominent position in the Society’s artifact collection. Look for it on your future visit during an Open House day or send an email to info@nuclearheritage.com to arrange a visit.