Pickering Nuclear Generating Station
Encyclopedia
Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

 in Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada.- Early Period :...

. The facility derives its name from the City (originally Township) of Pickering in which it is located.

Co-located at the Pickering station is a single 1.8 MWe wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

 named the OPG 7 commemorative turbine
OPG 7 commemorative turbine
The OPG 7 Gomberg Turbine is a Vestas model V80-1.8MW wind turbine in Pickering, Ontario. At the time of its construction, it was one of the largest wind turbines in North America, a 117-metre high wind machine commissioned in 2001 and designed to produce enough power to satisfy about 600 average...

.

Reactor Classification

The reactors can be classified as follows:

PICKERING A
  • PICKERING A 1
  • PICKERING A 2 (Dormant)
  • PICKERING A 3 (Dormant)
  • PICKERING A 4


PICKERING B
  • PICKERING B 5
  • PICKERING B 6
  • PICKERING B 7
  • PICKERING B 8

Construction

The facility was constructed in stages between 1966-1986 by the provincial Crown corporation, Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro was the official name from 1974 of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario which was established in 1906 by the provincial Power Commission Act to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at Niagara...

. In April 1999 Ontario Hydro was split into 5 component Crown corporations with Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation is a public company wholly owned by the Government of Ontario. OPG is responsible for approximately 70% of the electricity generation in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Sources of electricity include nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and fossil fuel...

 (OPG) taking over all electrical generating stations and which continues to operate the Pickering station.

The Pickering station is one of the largest nuclear facilities in the world and comprises 8 CANDU nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...

s located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...

, having a total output of 4124 MW (capacity net) and 4336 MW (gross net) when all units are online. Pickering is only surpassed in Canada by the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, in the communities of Inverhuron and Tiverton, Ontario. It occupies 932 ha of land. The facility derives its name from Bruce County in which it is located, in the former Bruce Township...

, which while also having 8 reactors, has a greater output. The facility is connected to the North American power grid via numerous 230,000 and 500,000 volt transmission lines.

The facility is operated as two distinct stations, Pickering A (Units 1 to 4) and Pickering B (Units 5 to 8). While primarily administrative in nature, the division is not wholly artificial, as there are some distinct differences in design between the two groups of stations. (Example: The Pickering A units employ moderator dump as a shutdown mechanism, a feature not found in Pickering B.) There are, however, a number of systems and structures in common between the two stations; the most notable of these is possibly the shared vacuum building, a negative pressure containment system.

Partial shutdown

On December 31, 1997 the four Pickering A reactors were shut down by a federal regulator, the Atomic Energy Control Board, because of Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro was the official name from 1974 of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario which was established in 1906 by the provincial Power Commission Act to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at Niagara...

's failure to upgrade the emergency shutdown systems at the station. Ontario Hydro committed to restarting the units, but the project underwent long delays and large cost over-runs.

Premier Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...

 asked former federal energy Minister Jake Epp to study and make recommendations on the problems with the Pickering restart. Mr. Epp acknowledged the large cost over-runs and delays attributing blame to bad management. The Epp Review estimated the cost of restarting the remaining reactors at $3 – 4 billion and supported the continuation of the project.

Upon election in 2003 the government of Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....

 was not immediately prepared to proceed with the restart of Pickering A. On December 16, 2003 the McGuinty government tasked the Ontario Power Generation Review Committee with reviewing the structure of Ontario Power Generation and the restart of the Pickering A reactors. The Committee included former federal finance Minister John Manley as chair as well as Peter Godsoe, a former CEO of Scotiabank
Scotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia , commonly known as Scotiabank , is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves some 18.6 million customers in more than 50 countries around the world and offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial,...

, and Jake Epp.

On March 18, 2004 the OPG Review Committee released its report, attributing the blame for cost over-runs to bad management. The report recommended proceeding with the restart of the Pickering “A” reactors, bringing unit 1, 2, and 3 online sequentially. The report suggested that the restart of units 2 and 3 should be contingent as to whether “OPG will be able to succeed at the Unit 1 project.”

The Sierra Club of Canada criticized the report for not attributing any blame to the problems of nuclear technology, noting that there were no energy or environmental experts appointed to the panel.

Numerous changes in executive-level staff and project management strategy were made for the follow-on project to refurbish Unit 1. The experience of refurbishing Pickering A Unit 1 was significantly different from Unit 4, with a much tighter adherence to schedule and budget. Unit 1 was returned to service in November 2005 providing 542 MW of generating capacity for Ontario's electricity system.

In August 2005, the OPG Board of Directors announced that Units 2 and 3 would not be refurbished due to specific technical and cost risks surrounding the material condition of these two units.

Waste

The used nuclear fuel and some refurbishment waste generated by the plant sits on-site at the Pickering Waste Management Facility. All operational low and intermediate-level waste is transported to OPG's Western Waste Management Facility at the Bruce nuclear site
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, in the communities of Inverhuron and Tiverton, Ontario. It occupies 932 ha of land. The facility derives its name from Bruce County in which it is located, in the former Bruce Township...

 near Kincardine, Ontario
Kincardine, Ontario
The Municipality of Kincardine is located on the shores of Lake Huron in the County of Bruce in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has a population of 12,000, and covers an area of 580 square kilometres...

. OPG has proposed the construction and operation of a deep geologic repository for the long-term storage of low and intermediate level waste on lands adjacent to the Western Waste Management Facility. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization
Nuclear Waste Management Organization (Canada)
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Canada was established in 2002 under the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act to investigate approaches for managing Canada’s used nuclear fuel...

 is currently seeking a site for a potential repository for the used fuel from all Canadian nuclear reactors.

Future

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) announced a two-part investment strategy for its nuclear generating stations in Durham Region. The strategy includes the decision to spend $300-million to keep the Pickering B nuclear station open for another decade before it begins the longer term decommissioning process as refurbishment for Pickering B station will not be pursued. The first step in this process is to layup the reactors and place them into safe storage. Pickering staff will have future opportunities placing the Pickering units in a safe storage state, at the Darlington refurbishment and operations, or at the potential new build at Darlington.

OPG will proceed with a detailed planning phase for the mid-life refurbishment of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station
Darlington Nuclear Generating Station
Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington, Ontario. The facility derives its name from the Township of Darlington, the former name of the municipality in which it is located.The Darlington station is a large...

 east of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, with construction expected to start in 2016. The business decision to move forward with an investment in Darlington came after initial studies on the plant’s condition operating performance returned positive results. The next phase of the process will include an Environmental Assessment, an Integrated Safety Review and an Integrated Improvement Plan that will define the scope, cost and schedule of the refurbishment project.

Trivia

In 1994 Pickering Unit 7 set a world record for continuous operation (894 days) without a shutdown.

See also

  • List of Canadian nuclear generating stations
  • Fitzpatrick Nuclear Generating Station
    Fitzpatrick Nuclear Generating Station
    The James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant is located in the Town of Scriba, near Oswego, New York, on the southeast shore of Lake Ontario. The nuclear power plant has one General Electric boiling water reactor...

  • Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station
    Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station
    Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in the Town of Scriba, approximately five miles northeast of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. The 900 acre site is also occupied by the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Generating Station.Nine Mile Point is operated...


External links

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