Gentilly 2 was Québec’s only operating nuclear power plant in 2012. It had an installed capacity of six hundred and seventy-five megawatts of electricity. In September of 2012, the provincial government announced that a planned refurbishment of the plant would no longer proceed. The Candu reactor is located on the south shore of the Fleuve Saint Lurent (Saint Lawrence River) in the town of Becancour. Gentilly 2 was closed at the end of 2012 after operating for twenty-nine years.
Hydro-Québec is a corporation owned by the Québec government. It recently responded to reports in the Canadian press that President and CEO Michael Sabia had initiated a feasibility study regarding the possibility of recommissioning the plant.
In a press release, Hydro-Québec said, "Remember that the demand for clean electricity will increase significantly over the next few years, in order to decarbonize the Quebec economy, which represents an immense challenge. An assessment of the current state of the plant is underway, in order to assess our options and inform our reflections on Québec's future energy supply. We are evaluating different possible options to increase the production of clean electricity. It would be irresponsible at this time to exclude certain energy sectors as the province faces the challenges of increasing electricity demand.”
Gentilly 2 was decommissioned immediately after it shut down for the last time in December of 2012. All the nuclear fuel was removed by September 2013. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issued a decommissioning license for the plant in July of 2016. All of its spent nuclear fuel had been transferred to dry storage on site by December of 2020. The decommissioning plan called for transitioning the plant to a forty-year monitored storage phase before beginning final dismantling in 2057. Late last year, Hydro-Québec stated that it was exploring the possibility of dismantling some of the buildings on the site earlier than had been planned.
More than ninety nine percent of Hydro-Québec’s electricity output is generated from renewable sources. Most of that output comes from Hydro-Québec’s sixty-three hydropower generating stations and twenty eight reservoirs. However, according to the company’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026, more than one hundred terawatt hours of additional clear electricity will be necessary if the province is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. According to that plan, the company intends to increase its generating capacity by five thousand megawatts by upgrading its current hydropower plants and adding wind power capacity.
Nationally, Canada generates more than sixteen percent of its electricity from eighteen Candu nuclear power reactors at the Bruce, Darlington and Pickering sites in Ontario and a single reactor at Point Lepreau in New Bruswick. Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan are pursuing a strategic plant to develop and deploy small modular reactors (SMRs). In July of this year, the government of Ontario announced the start of pre-development work to construct up to forty-eight hundred megawatts of new large scale capacity at Bruce Power’s existing site.
Earlier this week, the Canadian government launched its vision for transforming Canada’s electricity sector. Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson described the project as “truly transformational and nation-building.” Powering Canada Forward will inform how the Canadian federal government plans to work with partners and stakeholders as it develops Canada’s first Clean Energy Strategy, which will be released next year.