Nuclear power in Canada
| Electricity generation in Canada |
|---|
Nuclear power in Canada is provided by 17 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 12.7 gigawatt (GW), producing a total of 84.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which accounted for 13% of the country's total electric energy generation in 2023. All but one of these reactors are located in Ontario, where they produced 53% of the province's electricity in 2022. One reactor is located in New Brunswick, where it produced 28% of the electricity. 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. With two new CANDU reactors under construction in Romania and more proposed elsewhere, Canada is 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.