Exploring Candu High School
Its history begins with the demolition of the original high school due to dangerously high levels of radon gas. Uranium mining was the town’s lifeblood, and officials believe the contamination entered through the ground via the landfill. Poor HVAC systems made the radon problem worse, sealing the building’s fate.
Named after one of Canada’s famous nuclear reactors, Candu was built as a replacement in 1977 and opened in the fall of 1978. At the time, it was the best-equipped high school in northern Canada—no surprise, given its massive scale.
Yet, just four years later in 1982, the school closed. The shutdown was driven by dwindling enrollment and a lack of available services, coinciding with the decline of the uranium mines. Since then, it has remained abandoned.
Like many buildings in Uranium City, Candu High School has been vandalized beyond recognition and stripped of anything valuable. Still, for explorers, it remains one of hundreds of decaying structures that hold the echoes of the community’s past.