McMaster University, roughly a one-hour drive from Toronto
McMaster University, roughly a one-hour drive from Toronto, is home to the largest research reactor in Canada and the university offers tours to the public to provide an opportunity to learn more about nuclear energy. The McMaster Nuclear Reactor (MNR) first became operational in 1959 and is a world leader in the production of iodine-125, a radioactive isotope that is used in the treatment of prostate cancer, with hundreds of doses produced each week. (McMaster University) “We bring people into McMaster because we have a 5 MW reactor on campus. We have students all around, people live in the community very close to the reactor, and it's sort of like a model of how these reactors could fit into communities. You can actually see used nuclear fuel. It’s not a taboo topic because we can show everybody the different elements of nuclear energy, from fresh fuel to the reactor to medical isotopes.” “Some of our highest support for nuclear energy is in the community surrounding our nucl