To launch its new video series with a bang, Natural Elements presents …
The Canadian Explosives Research Laboratory!
One of the only laboratories of its kind in the world,
the CERL's principle areas of work include the certification of explosives
and equipment and the development of technology for the safety and security of explosives in Canada.
The laboratory is here to reduce the risk for Canadians from explosives, either accidental explosions or deliberate explosions.
A large part of what we do is around product authorization, because products — explosive products such as fireworks and blasting explosive or ammunitions —
have to be approved by Natural Resources in order to be manufactured or sold in Canada, and we’re the laboratory that does the testing.
The laboratory tests a wide variety of products, but focuses especially on fireworks because they are widely used
by the public and there is a steady stream of new products seeking entry into the Canadian market.
75 percent of the products that we test at the moment are fireworks.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a very high failure rate amongst those products
— as possibly as high as two-thirds of them fail on some aspect in which we test them.
We of course, because the fireworks are used by the public,
our test is fairly stringent and we look at a lot of different aspects, but the failure rate is very high.
In order to perform quality tests, the laboratory is also equipped with specialized facilities.
The facilities we have here at the laboratories are quite unique,
and a lot of the things that we do here, everyday activities, are quite unique in Canada.
But some of the more exciting tests we do, we do offsite because it involves using large amounts of explosives.
well this chamber is unique in Canada and its one of the very few in the world.
We can shoot up to five kilos of explosives in this chamber and you can stand outside.
Its unique in that it’s inside a building so it’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer,
which is always a help here in Ottawa and we would use this chamber
to do very scientific experiments - experiments would need quite a lot of instrumentation.
We have two other chambers that are outside that we use just for regular blowing things up.
In addition to working mainly with the Explosives Branch of the Minerals and Metals Sector of Natural Resources Canada,
the laboratory also partners with a wide variety of clients.
Finally, I would say that a very growing area for us is the work we do with other government departments on blasts effects on the protection
of either the federal government infrastructure or other infrastructure, like energy infrastructure, against the effects of potential explosions.
Thanks to the diligence of NRCan’s Explosives Safety and Security Branch,
Canada has one of the best safety records for fireworks in the world.