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99-478: Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station located 2 km northeast of Point Lepreau , New Brunswick , Canada. The facility was constructed between 1975 and 1983 by NB Power , the provincially owned public utility . The facility is located on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy and derives its name from the nearby headland situated at the easternmost part of Charlotte County , although

198-507: A steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity . As of September 2023 , the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that there were 410 nuclear power reactors in operation in 32 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction. Building a nuclear power plant often spans five to ten years, which can accrue significant financial costs, depending on how

297-460: A $ 1.4 billion (CAD) contract for refurbishing the generating station. The refurbishment of the power station began on 28 March 2008 and was originally scheduled to last 18 months with AECL as the lead contractor on the project, but the operation was marred by technical glitches, delays and incidents. For instance, two 115-tonne turbine rotors, (not part of the AECL contract) worth C$ 10 million each, toppled

396-581: A $ 2.5 million feasibility study regarding the installation of a new 1,100 MWe Advanced CANDU Reactor at Point Lepreau, to supply power to New England . In July 2010, the Government of New Brunswick , led at that time by the Liberal Party , signed an agreement with French nuclear manufacturer Areva to study the feasibility of a new light water nuclear plant on the Point Lepreau property. In September 2010

495-463: A barge in Saint John Harbour while being transported to the plant on 15 October 2008. The part manufacturer, Siemens Canada Ltd. , eventually sued four companies in an Ontario court, including J. D. Irving Ltd. , for "gross negligence" in the incident. Estimates for the reopening of the plant had been revised several times. In January 2009, a 3-month delay was announced because of problems with

594-460: A condenser. The condenser is a heat exchanger which is connected to a secondary side such as a river or a cooling tower . The water is then pumped back into the steam generator and the cycle begins again. The water-steam cycle corresponds to the Rankine cycle . The nuclear reactor is the heart of the station. In its central part, the reactor's core produces heat due to nuclear fission. With this heat,

693-442: A coolant is heated as it is pumped through the reactor and thereby removes the energy from the reactor. The heat from nuclear fission is used to raise steam, which runs through turbines , which in turn power the electrical generators. Nuclear reactors usually rely on uranium to fuel the chain reaction. Uranium is a very heavy metal that is abundant on Earth and is found in sea water as well as most rocks. Naturally occurring uranium

792-402: A facility has been completely decommissioned it is released from regulatory control, and the licensee of the station no longer has responsibility for its nuclear safety. Generally speaking, nuclear stations were originally designed for a life of about 30 years. Newer stations are designed for a 40 to 60-year operating life. The Centurion Reactor is a future class of nuclear reactor that

891-488: A nominally small, negative value. It also results in higher burnup operation than traditional CANDU designs. The ACR-1000 design currently calls for a variety of safety systems, most of which are evolutionary derivatives of the systems utilized on the CANDU 6 reactor design. Each ACR requires both SDS1 & SDS2 to be online and fully operational before they will operate at any power level. Safety Shutdown System 1 (SDS1): SDS1

990-404: A nuclear reactor heats the reactor coolant. The coolant may be water or gas, or even liquid metal, depending on the type of reactor. The reactor coolant then goes to a steam generator and heats water to produce steam. The pressurized steam is then usually fed to a multi-stage steam turbine . After the steam turbine has expanded and partially condensed the steam, the remaining vapor is condensed in

1089-479: A nuclear station is smaller than the fuel cost for operation of coal or gas plants. Since most of the cost of nuclear power plant is capital cost, there is almost no cost saving by running it at less than full capacity. Nuclear power plants are routinely used in load following mode on a large scale in France, although "it is generally accepted that this is not an ideal economic situation for nuclear stations". Unit A at

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1188-506: A number of long-established projects are struggling to find financing, notably Belene in Bulgaria and the additional reactors at Cernavodă in Romania , and some potential backers have pulled out. Where cheap gas is available and its future supply relatively secure, this also poses a major problem for nuclear projects. Analysis of the economics of nuclear power must take into account who bears

1287-444: A previous goal aimed to reduce nuclear electricity generation share to lower than fifty percent by 2025, this target was postponed to 2035 in 2019 and ultimately discarded in 2023. Russia continues to export the most nuclear power plants in the world, with projects across various countries: as of July 2023, Russia was constructing 19 out of 22 reactors constructed by foreign vendors; however, some exporting projects were canceled due to

1386-587: A significantly different evaluation of the economics of new nuclear power stations. Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan , costs are likely to go up for currently operating and new nuclear power stations, due to increased requirements for on-site spent fuel management and elevated design basis threats. However many designs, such as the currently under construction AP1000, use passive nuclear safety cooling systems, unlike those of Fukushima I which required active cooling systems, which largely eliminates

1485-549: A single CANDU nuclear reactor , having a net capacity of 660 MW (705 MW gross). The construction of a nuclear powered electrical generating station in New Brunswick had been discussed since the late 1950s. For over fifteen years, engineers from the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission visited AECL 's Chalk River Laboratories to keep abreast of the latest trends in the field. Formal talks between

1584-560: A site designed to host four in Point Lepreau, 20 km west of Saint John, New Brunswick's largest city at the time. The New Brunswick Electric Power Commission began the construction of one reactor, with an option for a second one. At its peak in 1979, the construction project employed 3,500 workers; 108 individual contracts out of 139 were granted to local businesses. Point Lepreau was licensed for operation on 21 July 1982, achieved criticality four days later and began commercial operations on 1 February 1983. The high rate of inflation over

1683-413: A slight decrease from the 2653 TWh produced in 2021. Thirteen countries generated at least one-quarter of their electricity from nuclear sources. Notably, France relies on nuclear energy for about 70% of its electricity needs, while Ukraine , Slovakia , Belgium , and Hungary source around half their power from nuclear. Japan , which previously depended on nuclear for over a quarter of its electricity,

1782-427: A small enough volume to become supercritical. Most reactors require continuous temperature control to prevent a core meltdown , which has occurred on a few occasions through accident or natural disaster, releasing radiation and making the surrounding area uninhabitable. Plants must be defended against theft of nuclear material and attack by enemy military planes or missiles. The most serious accidents to date have been

1881-563: A supply chain within the province. As indicated on 25 July 2019, NB Power envisions commercial demonstrations of both reactor types at the Point Lepreau site if these advanced technologies successfully complete Phase 2 of the CNSC Vendor Design review and their financial and project planning predictions continue to show promise. New Brunswick participated in the development of the Pan-Canadian SMR Roadmap (November 2018), and

1980-482: A three-year research study of offshore floating nuclear power generation. In October 2022, NuScale Power and Canadian company Prodigy announced a joint project to bring a North American small modular reactor based floating plant to market. The economics of nuclear power plants is a controversial subject, and multibillion-dollar investments ride on the choice of an energy source. Nuclear power stations typically have high capital costs, but low direct fuel costs, with

2079-580: A worldwide perspective, long-term waste storage costs are uncertain. Construction, or capital cost aside, measures to mitigate global warming such as a carbon tax or carbon emissions trading , increasingly favor the economics of nuclear power. Further efficiencies are hoped to be achieved through more advanced reactor designs, Generation III reactors promise to be at least 17% more fuel efficient, and have lower capital costs, while Generation IV reactors promise further gains in fuel efficiency and significant reductions in nuclear waste. In Eastern Europe,

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2178-401: Is about 1/3 of solar and 1/45 of natural gas and 1/75 of coal . Newer models, like HPR1000 , produce even less carbon dioxide during the whole operating life, as little as 1/8 of power plants using gen II reactors for 1.31g/kWh. Advanced CANDU Reactor The ACR-1000 was introduced as a lower-priced option compared to a larger version of the baseline CANDU which was being designed,

2277-532: Is also collaborating with the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan pertaining to the development of deployment of Small Modular Reactor technologies as part of the Interprovincial MOU announced in December 2019. In March 2019, a consortium involving NB Power , the Government of New Brunswick , ARC Nuclear , and Moltex Energy announced plans to develop small modular reactors at the Point Lepreau site. This

2376-520: Is anticipated to resume similar levels of nuclear energy utilization. Over the last 15 years, the United States has seen a significant improvement in the operational performance of its nuclear power plants, enhancing their utilization and efficiency, adding the output equivalent to 19 new 1000 MWe reactors without actual construction. In France, nuclear power plants still produce over sixty percent of this country's total power generation in 2022. While

2475-503: Is being designed to last 100 years. One of the major limiting wear factors is the deterioration of the reactor's pressure vessel under the action of neutron bombardment, however in 2018 Rosatom announced it had developed a thermal annealing technique for reactor pressure vessels which ameliorates radiation damage and extends service life by between 15 and 30 years. Nuclear stations are used primarily for base load because of economic considerations. The fuel cost of operations for

2574-467: Is designed to rapidly and automatically terminate reactor operation. Neutron-absorbing rods (control rods that shut down the nuclear chain reaction ) are stored inside isolated channels located directly above the reactor vessel (calandria) and are controlled via a triple-channel logic circuit. When any 2 of the 3 circuit paths are activated (due to sensing the need for emergency reactor trip), the direct current-controlled clutches that keep each control-rod in

2673-431: Is found in two different isotopes : uranium-238 (U-238), accounting for 99.3% and uranium-235 (U-235) accounting for about 0.7%. U-238 has 146 neutrons and U-235 has 143 neutrons. Different isotopes have different behaviors. For instance, U-235 is fissile which means that it is easily split and gives off a lot of energy making it ideal for nuclear energy. On the other hand, U-238 does not have that property despite it being

2772-430: Is stored inside channels that feed into horizontal nozzle assemblies. Each nozzle has an electronically controlled valve, all of which are controlled via a triple-channel logic circuit. When any 2 of the 3 circuit paths are activated (due to sensing the need for emergency reactor trip), each of these valves are opened and Gd(NO 3 ) 3 solution is injected through the nozzles to mix with the heavy-water moderator liquid in

2871-429: Is the only nuclear facility that does not use a natural body of water for cooling, instead it uses treated sewage from the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. The water coming from the cooling body of water is either pumped back to the water source at a warmer temperature or returns to a cooling tower where it either cools for more uses or evaporates into water vapor that rises out the top of the tower. The water level in

2970-486: The BWR , the steam is directed into the suppression chamber and condenses there. The chambers on a heat exchanger are connected to the intermediate cooling circuit. The main condenser is a large cross-flow shell and tube heat exchanger that takes wet vapor, a mixture of liquid water and steam at saturation conditions, from the turbine-generator exhaust and condenses it back into sub-cooled liquid water so it can be pumped back to

3069-435: The Government of New Brunswick and the Government of Canada began in 1972. Discussions accelerated the next year, in the midst of the 1973 oil crisis , as the provincial government began to seriously consider options for diversifying New Brunswick's electrical generation and reduce its reliance on oil . However, financing the venture was a problem since the province had a limited borrowing capacity. The borrowing capacity

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3168-485: The Progressive Conservative Party gained power and the plan was shelved by the incoming premier shortly after the election. Point Lepreau's CANDU-6 reactor was designed to last 25 years and was scheduled to be mothballed by 2008. Public debate on the future of the plant began as early as 2000. At the time, NB Power estimated the refurbishment cost at C$ 750 million. In 2002, NB Power, with support from

3267-491: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . Meanwhile, China continues to advance in nuclear energy: having 25 reactors under construction by late 2023, China is the country with the most reactors being built at one time in the world. Nuclear decommissioning is the dismantling of a nuclear power station and decontamination of the site to a state no longer requiring protection from radiation for the general public. The main difference from

3366-769: The Soviet Union . The world's first full scale power station, Calder Hall in the United Kingdom , opened on October 17, 1956 and was also meant to produce plutonium . The world's first full scale power station solely devoted to electricity production was the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania , United States, which was connected to the grid on December 18, 1957. The conversion to electrical energy takes place indirectly, as in conventional thermal power stations. The fission in

3465-656: The UAE launched the Arab region's first-ever nuclear energy plant. Unit 1 of the Barakah plant in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi commenced generating heat on the first day of its launch, while the remaining 3 Units are being built. However, Nuclear Consulting Group head, Paul Dorfman, warned the Gulf nation's investment into the plant as a risk "further destabilizing the volatile Gulf region, damaging

3564-439: The neutron moderator and the coolant for the primary cooling loop. It was believed that this design would result in lower overall operating costs due to its ability to use natural uranium for fuel, eliminating the need for enrichment. At the time, it was believed there would be hundreds and perhaps thousands of nuclear reactors in operation by the 1980s, and in that case the cost of enrichment would become considerable. Further,

3663-424: The 1970s and 1980s, when it "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies," in some countries. Proponents argue that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source which reduces carbon emissions and can increase energy security if its use supplants a dependence on imported fuels. Proponents advance the notion that nuclear power produces virtually no air pollution, in contrast to

3762-485: The 1979 Three Mile Island accident , the 1986 Chernobyl disaster , and the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster , corresponding to the beginning of the operation of generation II reactors . Professor of sociology Charles Perrow states that multiple and unexpected failures are built into society's complex and tightly coupled nuclear reactor systems. Such accidents are unavoidable and cannot be designed around. An interdisciplinary team from MIT has estimated that given

3861-559: The Brussels supplementary convention, and the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage . However states with a majority of the world's nuclear power stations, including the U.S., Russia, China and Japan, are not party to international nuclear liability conventions. The nuclear power debate about the deployment and use of nuclear fission reactors to generate electricity from nuclear fuel for civilian purposes peaked during

3960-474: The C$ 935 million figure quoted at the time by the provincial utility. Jeffrey's report made no recommendations on whether to undertake the plant's overhaul or not but advised New Brunswick decision makers to seek competitive bids for new fossil-fuel fired generation capacity. Despite being denied a federal grant to fund the project, NB Power announced on 29 July 2005 that it was awarding Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

4059-481: The CANDU 9. ACR was slightly larger but less expensive to build and run. The downside was that it did not have the flexibility of fuels that the original CANDU design offered, and would no longer run on pure unenriched uranium. This was a small price to pay given the low cost of enrichment services and fuel in general. AECL bid the ACR-1000 on several proposals around the world but won no contests. The last serious proposal

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4158-469: The CANDU design, including on-power refueling with the CANFLEX fuel; a long prompt neutron lifetime; small reactivity holdup; two fast, independent, safety shutdown systems; and an emergency core cooling system. The fuel bundle is a variant of the 43-element CANFLEX design (CANFLEX-ACR). The use of LEU fuel with a neutron absorbing centre element allows the reduction of coolant void reactivity coefficient to

4257-455: The Darlington B installation. Ultimately, AECL was the only company to place a formal bid, with a two-reactor ACR-1000 plant. The bids required that all contingencies for time and budget overruns be considered in the plans. The resulting bid was $ 26 billion for a total of 2,400 MWe, or over $ 10,800 per kilowatt. This was three times what had been expected, and called "shockingly high". As this

4356-581: The Government and opposition, pushed for refurbishment. However, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board ruled that "there is no significant economic advantage to the proposed refurbishment" of Point Lepreau and that "it is not in the public interest". In April 2004, a report authored by former British Energy chairman Robin Jeffrey estimated the plant's refurbishment would cost $ 1.36 billion instead of

4455-552: The chief viable alternative of fossil fuel. Proponents also believe that nuclear power is the only viable course to achieve energy independence for most Western countries. They emphasize that the risks of storing waste are small and can be further reduced by using the latest technology in newer reactors, and the operational safety record in the Western world is excellent when compared to the other major kinds of power plants. Opponents say that nuclear power poses many threats to people and

4554-436: The cleaning operation in a previous work series". According to an October 2010 estimate, the generating station was scheduled to be back on stream in the fall of 2012, three years later than first expected. First re-connected to the grid on 23 October 2012, on 23 November 2012 Point Lepreau restarted commercial power production with a final refurbishment cost approximately "$ 1 billion over its original budget". On 26 June 2018,

4653-674: The company had a negative impact on workers' morale at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station and was becoming a safety concern. Over 600 workplace injuries occurred at Point Lepreau between January 2009 and June 2010, including 7 "lost time", 13 "restricted work" injuries and 32 incidents requiring medical aid. According to the internal reports, delays were costing NB Power C$ 33 million a month: "C$ 11 million in capital costs and C$ 22 million for replacement power and interest". On 9 October 2010, NB Power announced that AECL would have to remove all 380 calandria tubes from

4752-485: The costs of fuel extraction, processing, use and spent fuel storage internalized costs. Therefore, comparison with other power generation methods is strongly dependent on assumptions about construction timescales and capital financing for nuclear stations. Cost estimates take into account station decommissioning and nuclear waste storage or recycling costs in the United States due to the Price Anderson Act . With

4851-399: The cover was sucked into the heat transport system where it caused catastrophic damage to one of the pumps. The cause of the incident was lack of control of temporary modifications, poor work management, lack of foreign material exclusion (FME) measures, and human error. There was no public safety significance to the event, since the reactor had been shut down long enough that decay heat power

4950-412: The design used both pressurized and unpressurized sections, the latter known as a "calandria", which it was believed would lower construction costs compared to designs that used highly pressurized cores. In contrast to typical light-water designs, CANDU did not require a single large pressure vessel, which was among the more complex parts of other designs. This design also allowed it to be refuelled while it

5049-424: The destruction of a turbine in operation from flying towards the reactor. In the case of a pressurized water reactor, the steam turbine is separated from the nuclear system. To detect a leak in the steam generator and thus the passage of radioactive water at an early stage, an activity meter is mounted to track the outlet steam of the steam generator. In contrast, boiling water reactors pass radioactive water through

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5148-458: The dismantling of other power stations is the presence of radioactive material that requires special precautions to remove and safely relocate to a waste repository. Decommissioning involves many administrative and technical actions. It includes all clean-up of radioactivity and progressive demolition of the station. Once a facility is decommissioned, there should no longer be any danger of a radioactive accident or to any persons visiting it. After

5247-435: The end of 2023, the total lifetime output of the facility was 166,354 GWh. In 1990, assistant plant operator Daniel George Maston was charged after he took heavy water from the moderator system and added it to a cafeteria drink dispenser. Eight employees drank some of the contaminated water. In 1995, a plywood cover was left in the boiler after completion of a maintenance outage. When the heat transport pumps were restarted,

5346-534: The energy-intensive stages of the nuclear fuel chain are considered, from uranium mining to nuclear decommissioning , nuclear power is not a low-carbon electricity source despite the possibility of refinement and long-term storage being powered by a nuclear facility. Those countries that do not contain uranium mines cannot achieve energy independence through existing nuclear power technologies. Actual construction costs often exceed estimates, and spent fuel management costs are difficult to define. On 1 August 2020,

5445-402: The environment and raising the possibility of nuclear proliferation." Nuclear power plants do not produce greenhouse gases during operation. Older nuclear power plants, like ones using second-generation reactors , produce approximately the same amount of carbon dioxide during the whole life cycle of nuclear power plants for an average of about 11g/kWh, as much power generated by wind , which

5544-775: The environment, and that costs do not justify benefits. Threats include health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining , processing and transport, the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or sabotage, and the problem of radioactive nuclear waste . Another environmental issue is discharge of hot water into the sea. The hot water modifies the environmental conditions for marine flora and fauna. They also contend that reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong, and there have been many serious nuclear accidents . Critics do not believe that these risks can be reduced through new technology , despite rapid advancements in containment procedures and storage methods. Opponents argue that when all

5643-411: The environment. In addition, many reactors are equipped with a dome of concrete to protect the reactor against both internal casualties and external impacts. The purpose of the steam turbine is to convert the heat contained in steam into mechanical energy. The engine house with the steam turbine is usually structurally separated from the main reactor building. It is aligned so as to prevent debris from

5742-513: The expected growth of nuclear power from 2005 to 2055, at least four serious nuclear accidents would be expected in that period. The MIT study does not take into account improvements in safety since 1970. Nuclear power works under an insurance framework that limits or structures accident liabilities in accordance with the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy ,

5841-539: The generating station itself is located within Saint John County . The generating station is administratively part of the local service district of Musquash , west of the city of Saint John . The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is the only nuclear generating facility located in Atlantic Canada and the only operating Canadian nuclear power station located outside of Ontario . The facility consists of

5940-462: The government of New Brunswick committed 10 million dollars toward the establishment of an advanced Small Modular Reactor Research Cluster. This was followed by announcements of the participation of ARC Nuclear (9 July 2018) and Moltex Energy (13 July 2018), each investing 5 million dollars to progress research and development of their advanced technologies. Since that time significant development has taken place, including discussions on establishing

6039-576: The heat transport system of any ACR. Emergency power supply system (EPS): The EPS system is designed to provide each ACR unit with the required electrical power needed to perform all safety functions under both operating & accident conditions. It contains seismically qualified, redundant standby generators, batteries and distribution switchgear. Cooling water system (CWS): The CWS provides all necessary light water (H 2 O) required to perform all safety system-related functions under both operating & accident conditions. All safety-related portions of

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6138-467: The heavy water coolant in the high-pressure section of the calandria with conventional "light" water. This greatly reduces the amount of heavy water needed, and the cost of the primary coolant loop. Heavy water remains in the low-pressure section of the calandria, where it is essentially static and used only as a moderator. The reactivity regulating and safety devices are located within the low-pressure moderator. The ACR also incorporates characteristics of

6237-406: The hot coolant is used as a heat source for a boiler, and the pressurized steam from that drives one or more steam turbine driven electrical generators . In the event of an emergency, safety valves can be used to prevent pipes from bursting or the reactor from exploding. The valves are designed so that they can derive all of the supplied flow rates with little increase in pressure. In the case of

6336-517: The initial investments are financed. Because of this high construction cost and lower operations, maintenance, and fuel costs, nuclear plants are usually used for base load generation, because this maximizes the hours over which the fixed cost of construction can be amortized. Nuclear power plants have a carbon footprint comparable to that of renewable energy such as solar farms and wind farms , and much lower than fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal . Nuclear power plants are among

6435-473: The life of the construction project, tense labour relations on the worksite and skyrocketing construction costs - all common traits of large public infrastructure projects of that period - tripled the early cost forecast in nominal terms. The estimated cost of C$ 466 million in 1974 increased to C$ 684 two years later and to C$ 895 in 1978. At the time of its commissioning in 1983, the total cost was estimated at C$ 1.4 billion, excluding interest charges. Point Lepreau

6534-446: The mid to late 1990s, due to poor maintenance and low investment. In mid-January 1997, a leak near the reactor core forced a third shutdown in 2 years. The 75-day stoppage was caused by a cracked feeder pipe. The human error cost C$ 40 million in repairs and C$ 450,000/day to purchase replacement power from Quebec. The graph represents the annual electricity generation at the site in GWh. As of

6633-586: The need to spend more on redundant back up safety equipment. According to the World Nuclear Association , as of March 2020: The Russian state nuclear company Rosatom is the largest player in international nuclear power market, building nuclear plants around the world. Whereas Russian oil and gas were subject to international sanctions after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Rosatom

6732-473: The now decommissioned German Biblis Nuclear Power Plant was designed to modulate its output 15% per minute between 40% and 100% of its nominal power. Russia has led in the practical development of floating nuclear power stations , which can be transported to the desired location and occasionally relocated or moved for easier decommissioning. In 2022, the United States Department of Energy funded

6831-505: The nuclear generation plan by part of the population. In March 1975, Hatfield declared on television that the decision was final, and that the reactor would be built regardless of the ongoing environmental assessment process, in a move described by New Brunswick sociologist Ronald Babin as the "nuclear fait accompli policy". On 2 May 1975, the Atomic Energy Control Board authorized the construction of two 635-MW reactors on

6930-419: The proposed sale had fallen through, citing Hydro-Québec's "concerns about unanticipated costs". Graham's announcement was contested by analysts who blamed the collapse of the deal on the difficult political situation in New Brunswick, six months before a scheduled provincial election . According to leaked internal documents, the proposed sale of NB Power and a proposed post-refurbishment staff reorganization of

7029-474: The prospect that all spent nuclear fuel could potentially be recycled by using future reactors, generation IV reactors are being designed to completely close the nuclear fuel cycle . However, up to now, there has not been any actual bulk recycling of waste from a NPP, and on-site temporary storage is still being used at almost all plant sites due to construction problems for deep geological repositories . Only Finland has stable repository plans, therefore from

7128-468: The province of New Brunswick accepted a proposal for a feasibility study for an ACR-1000 at Point Lepreau . This led to a formal bid by Team Candu, consisting of AECL, GE Canada , Hitachi Canada, Babcock & Wilcox Canada and SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, which proposed using a 1085 MWe ACR-1000. Nothing further came of this bid. It was later replaced by a mid-2010 bid by Areva, a bid that also lapsed. AECL

7227-424: The reactor and reinstall them a second time, an operation which took a year earlier in the refurbishment program. The calandria tubes, roughly 7 m (23 ft) and 13 cm (5.1 in), form the boundary to the moderator tank (calandria) through which the fuel channels are installed. According to an internal report dated 30 June 2010, the problem "is likely the result of damage to the tube sheet bores caused by

7326-427: The reactor by the condensate and feedwater pumps. In the main condenser, the wet vapor turbine exhaust come into contact with thousands of tubes that have much colder water flowing through them on the other side. The cooling water typically come from a natural body of water such as a river or lake. Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station , located in the desert about 97 kilometres (60 mi) west of Phoenix, Arizona,

7425-461: The reactor vessel (calandria). The result is that the reactor heat output is reduced by 90% within 2 seconds. Reserve water system (RWS): The RWS consists of a water tank located at a high elevation within the reactor building. This provides water for use in cooling an ACR that has suffered a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). The RWS can also provide emergency water (via gravity-feed) to the steam generators, moderator system, shield cooling system or

7524-540: The risks of future uncertainties. To date all operating nuclear power stations were developed by state-owned or regulated utilities where many of the risks associated with construction costs, operating performance, fuel price, and other factors were borne by consumers rather than suppliers. Many countries have now liberalized the electricity market where these risks and the risk of cheaper competitors emerging before capital costs are recovered, are borne by station suppliers and operators rather than consumers, which leads to

7623-446: The robotic equipment used to remove pressure tubes. A second, 4-month delay was announced in July of the same year. In October 2009, New Brunswick minister of Energy, Jack Keir , announced a tentative reopening by February 2011 and asked for federal money to cope with the unexpected cost of purchased power to replace the power ordinarily generated by the plant. The situation is compounded by

7722-632: The safest modes of electricity generation, comparable to solar and wind power plants. The first time that heat from a nuclear reactor was used to generate electricity was on December 21, 1951, at the Experimental Breeder Reactor I , powering four light bulbs. On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power station to generate electricity for a power grid , the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant , commenced operations in Obninsk , in

7821-407: The same element. Different isotopes also have different half-lives . U-238 has a longer half-life than U-235, so it takes longer to decay over time. This also means that U-238 is less radioactive than U-235. Since nuclear fission creates radioactivity, the reactor core is surrounded by a protective shield. This containment absorbs radiation and prevents radioactive material from being released into

7920-693: The steam generator and the nuclear reactor is controlled using the feedwater system. The feedwater pump has the task of taking the water from the condensate system, increasing the pressure and forcing it into either the steam generators—in the case of a pressurized water reactor — or directly into the reactor, for boiling water reactors . Continuous power supply to the plant is critical to ensure safe operation. Most nuclear stations require at least two distinct sources of offsite power for redundancy. These are usually provided by multiple transformers that are sufficiently separated and can receive power from multiple transmission lines. In addition, in some nuclear stations,

8019-487: The steam turbine, so the turbine is kept as part of the radiologically controlled area of the nuclear power station. The electric generator converts mechanical power supplied by the turbine into electrical power. Low-pole AC synchronous generators of high rated power are used. A cooling system removes heat from the reactor core and transports it to another area of the station, where the thermal energy can be harnessed to produce electricity or to do other useful work. Typically

8118-408: The storage position are de-energized. The result is that each control-rod is inserted into the calandria, and the reactor heat output is reduced by 90% within 2 seconds. Safety Shutdown System 2 (SDS2): SDS2 is also designed to rapidly and automatically terminate reactor operation. Gadolinium nitrate (Gd(NO 3 ) 3 ) solution, a neutron-absorbing liquid that shuts down the nuclear chain reaction,

8217-470: The strategic importance of the plant in NB Power supply plans, since Point Lepreau provides 4 TWh/year or between 25 and 30% of the provincial output. A few weeks later it was announced on 29 October 2009 that the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station would be one of the assets that were to be included in the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Québec . On 24 March 2010 Premier Shawn Graham announced that

8316-727: The system are seismically qualified and contain redundant divisions. The ACR has a planned lifetime capacity factor of greater than 93%. This is achieved by a three-year planned outage frequency, with a 21-day planned outage duration and 1.5% per year forced outage. Quadrant separation allows flexibility for on-line maintenance and outage management. A high degree of safety system testing automation also reduces cost. Bruce Power considered ACR in 2007 for deployment in Western Canada, both for power generation, or for steam generation to be used in processing oil sands . In 2011, Bruce Power decided not to move forward with this project. In 2008,

8415-477: The turbine generator can power the station's loads while the station is online, without requiring external power. This is achieved via station service transformers which tap power from the generator output before they reach the step-up transformer. Nuclear power plants generate approximately 10% of global electricity, sourced from around 440 reactors worldwide. They are recognized as a significant provider of low-carbon electricity , accounting for about one-quarter of

8514-415: The unexpected position of selling itself primarily on the lack of need for enrichment and the possibility that this presented a lower nuclear proliferation risk. ACR addresses the high capital costs of the CANDU design primarily by using low-enrichment uranium (LEU) fuel. This allows the reactor core to be built much more compactly, roughly half that of a CANDU of the same power. Additionally, it replaces

8613-455: The world's supply in this category. As of 2020, nuclear power stood as the second-largest source of low-carbon energy, making up 26% of the total. Nuclear power facilities are active in 32 countries or regions, and their influence extends beyond these nations through regional transmission grids, especially in Europe. In 2022, nuclear power plants generated 2545 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity,

8712-419: Was below the level that required coolant flow. However, the breach of the pressure boundary at the damaged pump created a radiation hazard for workers, and debris in feeders, fuel channels and potentially other Heat Transport and Auxiliaries pipework could have created a significant safety hazard during at-power operation. The cost of pump repairs, and the production downtime caused by the incident and its cleanup,

8811-723: Was finished in 1981. It operated until 2008, when it closed for a refurbishment until 23 October 2012, when it was first re-connected to the grid. This is the only operating nuclear reactor in Canada outside Ontario. This was the only CANDU reactor built on the east coast of Canada; other CANDUs are in Argentina, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Romania and China. In 2007, Team CANDU, a consortium of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Babcock & Wilcox Canada, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada Inc., Hitachi Canada Ltd and SNC-Lavalin Nuclear Limited began

8910-557: Was for a two-reactor expansion of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station , but this project was canceled in 2009 when the price was estimated to be three times what the government was budgeting. With no other sales prospects, in 2011 the AECL reactor design division was sold to SNC-Lavalin to provide services to the existing CANDU fleet. Development of the ACR ended. The original CANDU design used heavy water as both

9009-451: Was furthered when, in December 2019, the governments of New Brunswick , Ontario , and Saskatchewan announced a collaboration deal on the development of small modular reactors . The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station achieved record levels of availability with a 10-year average of 93.11% and generated over 5,000 GWh/year of energy on a sustained basis for its first decade of operations. However, numerous problems started to surface in

9108-406: Was limited and expensive and its price was expected to rise considerably by the 1980s. In practice, these advantages did not work out. The high expected fuel costs never came to be; when reactor construction stalled at around 200 units worldwide, instead of the expected thousands, fuel costs remained steady as there was ample enrichment capability for the amount of fuel being used. This left CANDU in

9207-504: Was marketing the ACR-1000 as part of the UK's Generic Design Process but pulled out in April 2008. CEO Hugh MacDiarmid is quoted as stating, "We believe very strongly that our best course of action to ensure the ACR-1000 is successful in the global market place is to focus first and foremost on establishing it here at home." The ACR-1000 was submitted as part of Ontario's request for proposal (RFP) for

9306-477: Was not targeted by sanctions. However, some countries, especially in Europe, scaled back or cancelled planned nuclear power plants that were to be built by Rosatom. Modern nuclear reactor designs have had numerous safety improvements since the first-generation nuclear reactors. A nuclear power plant cannot explode like a nuclear weapon because the fuel for uranium reactors is not enriched enough, and nuclear weapons require precision explosives to force fuel into

9405-421: Was running, improving the capacity factor , a key metric in overall performance. However, the use of natural uranium also meant the core was much less dense compared to other designs, and much larger overall. It was expected this additional cost would be offset by lower capital costs on other items, as well as lower operational costs. The key trade-off was the cost of the fuel, in an era when enriched uranium fuel

9504-413: Was significant. The incident also left wood and metal debris unrecoverable in the cooling system. Maintenance incidents at Lepreau in 1995 cost the facility more than $ 50 million in repairs and replacement power. In 2011, a spill of heavy water in the reactor building triggered a radiation alert and evacuation. NB Power stated that the event did not pose significant impact to the public or environment. This

9603-460: Was solved by the federal government in January 1974 with the announcement of a loan program covering half the costs of a first nuclear plant in any province in Canada. Premier Richard Hatfield announced his intention to build a nuclear generating station in New Brunswick on 5 February 1974. Hatfield's Progressive Conservative Party was reelected in that fall's general election , despite misgivings of

9702-418: Was the first time the reactor building had ever been evacuated. Nuclear power station A nuclear power plant ( NPP ), also known as a nuclear power station ( NPS ), nuclear generating station ( NGS ) or atomic power station ( APS ) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor . As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives

9801-576: Was the only bid, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure decided to cancel the expansion project in 2009. In 2011, with no sales prospects remaining, the Canadian government sold AECL's reactor division to SNC-Lavalin . In 2014, SNC announced a partnership with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to support sales and construction of the existing CANDU designs. Among these was

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