In December, the interns were delighted to meet with Clint Thomas and Pat Dalzell from longtime OLIP partner, Bruce Power. Clint is the Director of Government and Stakeholder Relations, after having worked as Director of Communications at the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade and the Ministry of Finance. Pat, who’s current role at Bruce Power is Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Market Development, also serves as Chairperson of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario and Board Member at the Canadian Nuclear Association.
Established in 2001, Bruce Power is Canada’s only private sector nuclear generator, annually producing 30 per cent of Ontario’s power with zero net emissions. The Bruce Power Generating Site in the Bruce Peninsula is the largest operating nuclear site in the world with a capacity of 6,550 megawatts (MW). Their mission is to provide clean and affordable power and life-saving medical isotopes. They also aim to protect the environment while strengthening their relationship with local stakeholders and communities.
We learned about Bruce Power’s ‘Project 2030’, which aims to add an additional 700MW of output—equivalent to a new reactor’s worth of power—by renovating and increasing the efficiency of existing reactors. Other important projects at Bruce Power include the production of medical isotopes like Cobalt-60 and Lutetium-177, which can be used to sterilize medical equipment and locate and destroy cancer cells. Bruce Power is also partnering with Saugeen Ojibway Nation to market new isotopes.
We then discussed how Bruce Power and other nuclear power plants safely store nuclear waste. Spent fuel is removed from the reactors and stored in facilities at the generating station before being moved to longer term storage. At the end of last year, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization announced they had chosen a site for a future underground repository that will permanently and safely store spent fuel created by generating stations like the one operated by Bruce Power.
The interns would like to extend our warmest thanks to Pat and Clint for meeting with us, and to Bruce Power for their continued and generous support of OLIP. The programme would not be possible without partners such like Bruce Power. We look forward to our site visit in the Spring!
