On the road to the “nuclear renaissance,” Canada’s nuclear-power industry hit a speed bump. Declining electricity demand has scotched plans to add as much as 7,200 MW of greenfield nuclear powerplants in Ontario. But even as it withdrew applications for eight new reactors at two sites, the country’s largest independent generator pledged to complete refurbishment of two laid-up units on its flagship site and to continue developing new nuclear powerplants in Saskatchewan and Alberta. If built, the plants in those provinces would be western Canada’s first nuclear plants.
On July 23, Bruce Power, Tiverton, Ontario, announced it would withdraw its application to build two new reactors in Nanticoke, Ontario, on the shore of Lake Erie, and four new units on the 2,300-acre Bruce Nuclear Generating Station site in Tiverton. Just last October, Bruce Power Erie Inc. had applied for a site preparation license for up to 3,200 MW of new nuclear capacity. Bruce Power also was in the final year of a three-year environmental assessment for construction of four reactors totaling about 4,000 MW in Tiverton, on Lake Huron.