Ontario Power Generation to Refurbish Darlington Nuclear Power Station

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ontario Power Generation Incorporated (OPG) (Toronto, Ontario) has announced plans to refurbish the four Darlington nuclear power reactors, extending the life of the plant for another 30 years. However, the Pickering B nuclear plant in Pickering, Ontario, will not be refurbished and will continue to operate for another 10 years, after which the decommissioning process will begin.

OPG has performed initial studies into the condition and operating performance of the Darlington plant, which is OPG's newest plant, having been constructed between 1981 and 1993. The plant has four Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors and a total generating capacity of 3,524 megawatts (MW). The facility is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, about 70 kilometers east of Toronto. Following "very promising outcomes" from the initial studies, OPG will now proceed with developing detailed plans for the refurbishment of the plant.

The next phase of the refurbishment program calls for an environmental assessment and an integrated safety review, after which OPG will develop an integrated improvement plan to cover the scope, costs and scheduling of the refurbishment. Typical reconditioning of CANDU reactors includes replacement of the steam generators and fuel channels, and upgrading ancillary systems to current standards. At this stage, OPG has not announced the costs involved in the refurbishment program, but work is expected to begin in 2016.

The Darlington site is also the location for a proposed extension of the Ontario government's nuclear generating facilities, with plans for a number of reactors generating up to 4,800 MW on the site. An environmental-impact statement for the new build was submitted in October 2009 and is currently in the six-month public review period.

While the Darlington plant will be given a new lease of life, OPG's other nuclear facility at Pickering will not share the same future. The Pickering site, also located on the shores of Lake Ontario to the east of Toronto, contains two plants, Pickering A and Pickering B.

Pickering A was first commissioned in 1971 and contains four CANDU units. It is the oldest of the nuclear plants operated by OPG and was shut down by the Atomic Energy Control Board in December 1997 because of a failure to upgrade the emergency shutdown facilities. Following a long delay caused by political differences and allocation of responsibility, Unit 4 was refurbished and returned to service in September 2003, followed by Unit 1 in November 2005. Units 2 and 3 remain shut down, so the Pickering A plant currently produces about 1,000 MW of power.

Pickering B also contains four units and was commissioned in 1983. The facility produces about 2,100 MW of electricity. OPG now intends to invest about $287 million to ensure that Pickering B will continue to operate safely for a further 10 years, following which the firm will begin to decommission the plant. The company has already indicated that it will make an application later this year to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to extend the plant's operating life to 2020.

Canada has one of the highest per capita consumption rates for electricity in the world and generates about 15% of its electricity from nuclear power plants. The remainder of the electricity is produced mainly from hydroelectric schemes (58%), coal-fired thermal stations (7%), and gas-fired plants (6%).

The country has 18 operational nuclear reactors including those at Darlington and Pickering. In total, these 18 reactors have a generating capacity of about 12,600 MW. Several of the reactors are currently undergoing refurbishment, including two reactors at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on the shores of Lake Huron. The plant is operated by Bruce Power Limited Partnership (Tiverton, Ontario).

In addition to the refurbishment programs that are under way or planned, Canada also plans to construct several new nuclear power plants, including the extension to the Darlington site. Bruce Power is planning to build up to four reactors with a possible capacity of up to 4,340 MW at Peace River in Alberta, and the government-owned Hydro-Quebec (Montreal, Quebec) has plans for a 1,100-MW second reactor at the Point Lepreau site in New Brunswick.

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