By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 10 -- A privately held Canadian power generator has taken the first step toward construction of a nuclear power plant in the heart of Alberta's oil sands region.
Energy Alberta Corp., Calgary, filed an application for a license to prepare a site on private land adjacent to Lac Cardinal, 30 km west of Peace River.
The application is for as many as two, twin-unit Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactors. The first unit ultimately would have capacity of a net 2.2 Gw of electricity. Energy Alberta envisions a start-up date in early 2017.
Canada has seven commercial nuclear power plants, none of them in Alberta. They are in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec.
Nuclear power has been examined as a way to meet the large energy needs of oil sands production, which now rely heavily on natural gas, while lowering the air emissions associated with hydrocarbon combustion.
But the nuclear option has strong environmental resistance.
Energy Alberta said its application to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission represents "the first of many steps in getting licenses to build the plant."
