Darlington Nuclear Generating Station

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Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington, Ontario. The facility derives its name from the Township of Darlington, the former name of the municipality in which it is located. It is arguably one of the most advanced nuclear generating stations in the world.

The facility was constructed in stages between 1981-1993 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 Darlington station.

The Darlington station is a large nuclear facility and comprises 4 CANDU nuclear reactors located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, having a total output of 3524 MW (capacity net) and 3740 MW (gross net) when all units are online. This is sufficient to provide enough power for a city the size of Toronto (about 4.5 million).

To most Ontarians, the Darlington station is associated with the massive cost overruns incurred during its construction. The initial cost estimate for the station was $5 billion CAD, while the final cost was $14.4 billion CAD. Discussion of who is to blame for the costs and subsequent debts associated with Darlingtion often arise during provincial election campaigns, and are often mentioned in anti-nuclear literature.[1]

OPG has also begun the process for building up to 4 new nuclear units at the site of its Darlington Nuclear Station. There is a lengthy approvals process in place including a full Environmental Assessment which will take 3-4 years to complete. If everything goes well, the new units would go into service sometime around 2018. No decision has been made on what technology will be used but the government has indicated it's preference for the CANDU design.

The reactors are as follows:

DARLINGTON