Pickering Nuclear Generating Station
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Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located in Pickering, Ontario. The facility derives its name from the city of Pickering (a suburb of Toronto) in which it is located.
The facility was constructed in stages between 1966-1986 by the provincial Crown corporation, Ontario Hydro. In April 1999 Ontario Hydro was split into 5 component Crown corporations with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) taking over all electrical generating stations and which continues to operate the Pickering station.
Due to the age of its older reactors, the Pickering station underwent changes in the 1990s as some units in the PICKERING A group were mothballed. Also co-located at the Pickering station is a single wind turbine test site.
The Pickering station is one of the largest nuclear facilities in the world and comprises 8 CANDU nuclear reactors located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, 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, which while also having 8 reactors, has a greater output.
The Pickering A station is currently undergoing a rebuilding process. This project is well over budget and late. The difficulties at Pickering have resulted in numerous firings and resignations from Ontario Power Generation.
The reactors are as follows:
PICKERING A
- PICKERING A 1 (returning to service - projected September 2005)
- PICKERING A 2 (shut down)
- PICKERING A 3 (shut down)
- PICKERING A 4 (returned to service September 2003)
PICKERING B
- PICKERING B 5 (currently operating)
- PICKERING B 6 (currently operating)
- PICKERING B 7 (currently operating)
- PICKERING B 8 (currently operating)
See also
External links
- Ontario Power Generation (http://www.opg.com/pickea/n_pickering.asp)
- Google maps satellite image (http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Pickering,Ontario,+Canada&ll=43.811760,-79.066072&spn=0.020385,0.031672&t=k&hl=en)