Bruce Power Alberta has completed a deal to buy Energy Alberta’s nuclear power plant development assets.
The firm has also filed an application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to prepare a site for the possible construction of western Canada’s first nuclear power plant.
Bruce Power Alberta is considering up to four reactors that could produce 4000MWe.
According to the company, the first unit could be ready in 2017, pending successful completion of an environmental assessment and consultation with local communities.
To begin the consultation process, Bruce Power Alberta is hosting a series of introductory ‘open houses’ in April in several Peace Country communities.
Over the next several months, Bruce Power Alberta will also establish an office in Peace Country to coordinate its consultation, technical studies, site evaluation and planning activities.
At this early stage in the planning process, Bruce Power Alberta says it has not chosen a specific reactor design for the site. Instead, it says it will consider the potential impact of several Generation III reactors.
Bruce Power says it is taking a similar approach in Ontario, where it is conducting another environmental assessment to determine if it will build new reactors at the Bruce County site, where it currently operates six reactor units and is in the process of restarting two more.
Bruce Power Alberta is an all-Canadian partnership of TransCanada Corporation, Cameco Corporation and BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust.
Related ArticlesAECL dishes out $15 million in contracts for ACR-1000 development EDF meets with UK suppliers Interview: “We will be back” in Europe, says GE UK-France nuclear cooperation
