Canadian Nuclear Technology
There are two very significant differences between Canada and the U.S. with respect to developing and constructing new nuclear power plants. In the U.S., an investor-owned utility typically selects a privately owned nuclear technology and develops a new nuclear project with the federal government as regulator. In Canada, provincial governments, through their utilities, own the majority of nuclear plants. Bruce Power is Canada’s only privately owned nuclear power generator. It was formed by a partnership between Cameco Corp., TransCanada Corp., and BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust — a trust established by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, the Power Workers’ Union, and The Society of Energy Professionals.
The second key difference is that the U.S. federal government does not market a particular nuclear technology but is technology neutral.
AECL, established in 1952, is a Crown Corporation wholly owned by the federal government to foster the advancement of nuclear energy and nuclear technology. In 1994, the federal government altered the AECL’s mandate, requiring it to concentrate on "its role as a reactor designer and vendor." The AECL is still responsible for most nuclear research and development occurring in Canada, including the development, marketing, and management of the construction of Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) power reactors internationally.
The CANDU Reactor Division, based in Mississauga, Ontario, is operated like a commercial enterprise and includes the management of nuclear reactor construction, life extension, and servicing projects. During this past year, the AECL increased its staff by approximately 14% to address growth and to sustain existing nuclear facilities.
The AECL is currently pursuing a "next- generation" CANDU design — the ACR-1000 — which is expected to have lower capital costs, require a shorter construction time, and produce less waste than current CANDU reactors.
The CANDU system, unlike U.S. light water reactors, uses natural uranium as fuel. When it comes to performance, CANDU-6 technology has been very reliable and has had an 87% lifetime capacity factor.
A memorandum of understanding with the AECL allows Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff to perform project design reviews of the ACR-1000. Marketing efforts for the ACR-1000 are currently focused on Canadian-based projects as a precursor to pushing the technology onto the international market. The CANDU-6 reactor continues to be marketed internationally, with a focus on mid-market countries and those where natural uranium is the preferred fuel.
Although no new reactors have been commissioned in Canada for over a decade, there are proposals to build new plants in Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario. In the meantime, the AECL has been delivering new CANDU reactors to other nations, including South Korea, Romania, China, India, and Pakistan. Jordan, Turkey, and Lithuania also have expressed interest in the new CANDU-6 to meet their rising electricity demand, and, in the case of Argentina, to develop its own nuclear supply chain.
Prior to 1990, the AECL sold and built only three reactors outside Canada: RAPS-1, Wolsong-1, and Embalse. Since then it has built seven additional reactors outside Canada, including three in South Korea (Wolsong), two in China (Qinshan), and two in Romania (Cernavoda), where the second unit was commissioned on October 5, 2007. Romania is considering two more CANDU units at the same location.
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