Pickering Nuclear Generating StationPickering Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Pickering, Ontario. It is one of the oldest nuclear power stations in the world and Canada's third-largest, with eight CANDU reactors. Since 2003, two of these units have been defueled and deactivated. The remaining six produce about 16% of Ontario's power and employ 3,000 workers. A single 1.8 MWe wind turbine, named the OPG 7 commemorative turbine, was installed on the site of the generating station until October 2019, when it was dismantled.
Atomic Energy of Canada LimitedAtomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this technology to Candu Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin). AECL describes its goal as ensuring that "Canadians and the world receive energy, environmental and economic benefits from nuclear science and technology – with confidence that nuclear safety and security are assured".
Darlington Nuclear Generating StationDarlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington, Ontario. It is a large nuclear facility comprising four CANDU nuclear reactors with a total output of 3,512 MWe (capacity net) when all units are online. It is Canada's second-largest nuclear power plant and provides about 20 percent of Ontario's electricity needs, enough to serve a city of two million people.
CANDU reactorThe CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide (heavy water) moderator and its use of (originally, natural) uranium fuel. CANDU reactors were first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Canadian General Electric, and other companies.
Heavy waterHeavy water (deuterium oxide, 2H2O, D2O) is a form of water whose hydrogen atoms are all deuterium (2H or D, also known as heavy hydrogen) rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (1H or H, also called protium) that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water. The presence of the heavier hydrogen isotope gives the water different nuclear properties, and the increase in mass gives it slightly different physical and chemical properties when compared to normal water. Deuterium is a heavy hydrogen isotope.