Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station
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Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located in Point Lepreau, New Brunswick. The facility derives its name from the headland situated at the westernmost part of Saint John County upon which it is located (west of the city of Saint John).
The facility was constructed between 1975-1983 by the provincial Crown corporation, NB Power.
The Point Lepreau station is the only nuclear facility located in eastern Canada and comprises 1 CANDU nuclear reactor located on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy, having a total output of 640 MW (capacity net) and 680 MW (gross net).
Point Lepreau's CANDU reactor was designed to last 25 years and was scheduled to be mothballed by 2008. In July 2005 NB Power announced that it was awarding Atomic Energy of Canada Limited a $1.4 billion (CAD) contract for refurbishing the generating station. This will extend the reactor's lifespan by approximately 30 years.
In 1990, a disgruntled employee at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station took a sample of heavy water from the primary heat transport loop and loaded it into a water cooler. 8 employees drank some of the contaminated water. The incident was discovered when employees began leaving bioassay urine samples with elevated tritium levels. The quantities involved were well below levels which could induce heavy water toxicity, but several employees received elevated radiation doses from tritium and activated chemicals in the water.[1]
