Nuclear power in Canada

Nuclear power in Canada is provided by 19 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 13.5 gigawatt (GW), producing a total of 95.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which accounted for 16.6% of the country's total electric energy generation in 2015. All but one of these reactors are located in Ontario, where they produced 61% of the province's electricity in 2019 (90.4 TWh).[1] Seven smaller reactors are used for research and to produce radiopharmaceuticals for use in nuclear medicine.

All currently operating Canadian nuclear reactors are a type of pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) of domestic design, the CANDU reactor. CANDU reactors have been exported to India, Pakistan, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, and China. While there are (as of 2022) no plans for new CANDUs in Canada or elsewhere, Canada remains a technology leader in heavy water reactors and natural uranium fueled reactors more broadly. The Indian IPHWR-line is an indigenized derivative of the CANDU while only a small number of pressurized heavy water reactors were built independent of the CANDU-line, mainly Atucha nuclear power plant in Argentina.

  1. ^ "IESO Supply Overview". www.ieso.ca. Independent Electricity System Operator. Retrieved September 15, 2017.