Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has received two industry awards at the 45th Annual Conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society in Calgary: the CNS President’s Award 2026 and the Education & Communication Award. These are not ceremonial honors—they reflect fifteen years of substantive work in fusion development and public science education.
The CNS President’s Award went to Dr. Blair P. Bromley of CNL and Dr. Peter Schwanke of CÉGEP Heritage College, who have co-chaired the Canadian Nuclear Society’s Fusion Energy and Accelerator Science and Technology division (FEASTD) for fifteen consecutive years. Bromley works as a reactor physicist at CNL, providing technical support on fuel cycles and advanced reactor technologies. The Education & Communication Award was jointly presented by CNS and the Canadian Nuclear Association to the editorial team behind CNL’s Kids CONTACT publication—a newsletter that has brought nuclear science into Canadian schools and homes for years. Two separate awards, one common thread: building nuclear literacy at every level of society.
These recognitions come at a time when Canada is making serious bets on fusion. CNL is constructing UNITY-2 at Chalk River—described by the organization as the world’s first integrated test loop for a fusion fuel cycle. UNITY-2 is a project of Fusion Fuel Cycles Inc., a joint venture established in 2024 between CNL and Japan’s Kyoto Fusioneering. The facility will simulate the complete deuterium-tritium fuel cycle, from plasma exhaust to purification and refueling. Targeted to be operational by mid-2026, it secured a $20 million investment from General Atomics in August 2025 under a ten-year agreement. The federal government and Ontario have added tens of millions more through the Centre for Fusion Energy, a partnership that also includes Ontario Power Generation and startup Stellarex.
Canada holds a structural advantage in the fusion race: CANDU reactors produce tritium as a byproduct, and nearly all of the world’s commercial tritium supply is located in Ontario. This access to fusion fuel is far from a minor technical footnote—it is precisely why companies such as General Fusion, Kyoto Fusioneering, and General Atomics have chosen Canada as the home for their most advanced projects. CNL has formalized agreements with all three, as well as with the UK Atomic Energy Authority and Stellarex. The global private fusion market has already attracted over $8.2 billion in investment, with 43 companies active in the sector.
The awards presented to Bromley and the Kids CONTACT team point to something that often goes underappreciated: a credible nuclear strategy is not built on infrastructure and capital alone—it also requires decades of work on public awareness and the education of future generations. CNL regularly partners with Canadian universities, hosts doctoral students at Chalk River, and sponsors awards at national science fairs. If UNITY-2 performs as expected and paves the way for similar facilities elsewhere, it will be in no small part because people spent twenty years building the scientific community that made it possible.
