yoshirocks702
Active Member
If Hinkley Point C is any indication (3200MW @ ~$45B Pounds/ $79.2B CAD and 14-15 year construction time), I'll be surprised if this is ready by 2050 and be less than $100B by the time its done.
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- Thread starter SaugeenJunction
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rbt
Senior Member
A more suitable comparison might be the various CANDU refurbishments at Darlington, Pickering, and Bruce. While not a new build, they're far from trivial. In addition, while small, the Darlington expansion SMRs (2029 target date) will help guide cost targets prior to beginning construction at this location.
Should be noted much of the cost for Hinkley was teaching locals how to do nuclear construction again: the second reactor is going smoother. Sizewell C cost is based on later Hinkley work rather than the earlier pieces.
IMO, Hinkley is just odd. 3 different types of reactors each using a different type of fuel. They're all Uranium in the same way gasoline, kerosine, and diesel are all oil.
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Coolibop
Active Member
Is this supposedly on top of SMRs or are we just giving up on that idea? As I understand, the Hitachi one at Darlington hasn't been proven tech yet (and it isn't that small...) Just a proof of concept for now?
generalcanada
Senior Member
Flagship nuclear reactor finally set to open in France after being delayed for over a decade — here's why America should be paying attention
This launch of Flamanville 3 marks a massive turning point.
Frances new reactor 12 years delayed at 4x the budget from 3 bil to 12
so 1.6gw for about 20 bil cad.
How good are companies building nuclear in canada now that we have done quite a bit of refurbrishment. Those projects are ahead of schedule and on budget
generalcanada
Senior Member
Last i heard it was still scheduled for 2029 5 years out
ericmacm
Active Member
SMRs are a separate initiative at Darlington. The issue with SMRs is that they are still not really a proven technology. Construction of the first SMR will be the proof of concept/showcase, the three identical ones that follow will determine replicability and establish methods/experience with manufacturing and construction, and only after that, if it all goes according to plan, will you see SMRs start to be deployed in larger amounts to serve their intended purpose of offering small-scale nuclear power to remote areas.
Wesleyville is intended to be part of the solution to the coming energy crunch and will do the heavy lifting. For such a crucial (and arguably existential) issue, you can’t bank on an experimental technology since it is a huge gamble if it ultimately doesn’t work out. This is Ontario sticking to what it already knows how to do.
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ericmacm
Active Member
Looks like we missed a minor development regarding nuclear development in St. Clair Township because it was overshadowed by the Wesleyville/Port Hope announcement. Stephen Lecce was with the Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce on January 14 getting community consultations started, which are expected to finish up by end of 2025.
Haldimand County Council also passed a motion back in December supporting nuclear development in Nanticoke shortly after the province initially announced that they were looking at the three sites. No formal consultations appear to have started yet, but this signals willingness to host and cooperate with OPG.
Haldimand County Council also passed a motion back in December supporting nuclear development in Nanticoke shortly after the province initially announced that they were looking at the three sites. No formal consultations appear to have started yet, but this signals willingness to host and cooperate with OPG.
dowlingm
Senior Member
Thinking about the Wesleyville co-located industry diagram, I wonder if there might be thoughts of expanding or relocating some of Cameco’s activities in Port Hope (uranium conversion to UO3 for domestic use and UF6 for export) and Cobourg (fuel rod manufacture).
urbancog
Active Member
In this video, FT speculates that there will be a shortfall in supply of enriched uranium with all the new reactors under construction and planned.
It's noted here (in the Scale section) that CANDU reactors don't need enriched fuel to operate so it's surprising that we're not seeing new sales of that process outside Canada.
It's noted here (in the Scale section) that CANDU reactors don't need enriched fuel to operate so it's surprising that we're not seeing new sales of that process outside Canada.
kaptrice
New Member
I don't expect anyone would jump at the opportunity to be a first-of-a-kind customer for a foreign reactor. Any new CANDUs will be a new design (i.e. Monark). They've never been built, while AP1000s have; it's a good deal of risk to bear.
If they get built in Canada first then it might gain more traction. But that also depends on whether or not they can be competitive with new EPRs or AP1000s even without taking into mind immaturity.
ericmacm
Active Member
Not an Ontario project, but Energy Alberta (private company) has just filed its Initial Project Description with the Impact Assessment Agency for the long-planned Peace River Nuclear Power Plant project, which was originally proposed in the 2000s, was later sold to Bruce Power, and eventually shelved in 2011.
Looks like they will be looking to generate up to 4,800MW and plan on using the CANDU Monark.
Looks like they will be looking to generate up to 4,800MW and plan on using the CANDU Monark.
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innsertnamehere
Superstar
It would be great to see western Canada adopt nuclear.
lenaitch
Senior Member
It will be the world's first tar sands fueled nuclear reactor.
stapler
New Member
More likely the reverse: the first nuclear powered in-situ thermal mining.
ericmacm
Active Member
This project won’t serve that explicit purpose (with the exception of providing energy to the grid, which the Oil Sands will still benefit from), but there’s a good chance we will see exactly this happen in the future.
The most energy intensive aspects of Oil Sands processes is the upgrading of heavy crude to synthetic crude, namely cracking and fractional distillation. Both require intense amounts of heat and steam which is currently generated via natural gas combustion, which nuclear reactors are really good at generating. It would, however, require that reactor to be locally situated.
Pathways Alliance has been researching this for a while and is probably waiting to see how the SMRs in Ontario work out before making a move. Incorporating a mass-produced SMR into an upgrader site would be much more practical than trying to build a conventional bespoke plant for each location.