The Canadian Province of Ontario and the Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) have announced plans for the refurbishment of four units at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station with an investment of CAD1.5bn (US$1.1bn). The refurbishing contemplates works on the station’s “B” units (reactors 5 through 8), aiming to extend by 30 years the lifetime of the units. The initiation phase of the refurbishment will last through the end of 2024, with full refurbishment anticipated to be completed by the mid-2030’s. Once refurbished, the power plant would produce a total of 2 GW of electricity, equivalent to powering two million homes. The project is still subject to regulatory approval by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
The Pickering station started operations in 1971, is located approximately at 45 km east of Toronto and is Canada’s third largest nuclear power station, with eight CANDU reactors (two of which were shut down in 2007 and 2008). The refurbishment of the Pickering nuclear power plant is aligned with the local government’s projects to advance nuclear energy through its Powering Ontario’s Growth plan.
As of end-2022, nuclear represented 9% of Canada’s installed capacity with 14 GW and 13% of its power generation with 87.2 TWh.
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