Canadian Oil Sands Nuclear Plant Seen for 2016

The first in a series of nuclear power plants planned for the oil-rich tar sands of Western Canada should be operating by 2016, the head of the project said Thursday.

The Energy Alberta Corporation says it wants to place a C$5.5 billion (US$4.3 billion) Canadian-built Candu twin reactor plant in northern Alberta to provide the massive amounts of power needed to extract oil from the sticky sands.
“One reactor (would be) in 2016 and the second one would be in 2017 … We’re taking it to where we feel there’s less resistance (from the public),” corporation director Wayne Henuset told Reuters.

“We hope to site it and talk to the communities in the next two months,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of a nuclear industry seminar.

Two further reactors are planned for a later unspecified date. Henuset said the potential customers for the power were all major oil companies, but he declined to give details.

Planet Ark