[cdn-nucl-l] CANDU Reactor performance 2000

["Brown, Morgan" <brownmj@aecl.ca>]

The numbers are in from Nucleonics Week, reporting the gross nuclear
generation for the world's nuclear power reactors.

There were 426 reactors included in the list, including the 21 in Canada
(Bruce-2 is not included, but Bruce 1,3&4 and Pickering 1-4 are included.
All but Bruce 1 are expected to be restarted after refurbishment).

Canada did poorly on a national basis, with a 49.76% capacity factor on an
arithmetic basis (each reactor given an equal weighting, regardless of
size).  This low value is due to seven Ontario Power Generation (OPG)
reactors being out of service for refurbishment.  This compares to 51.59% in
1999,  50.32% in 1998 (when Bruce-3 & 4 also produced power), and 60.73% in
1997 (when 21 reactors were running).  The capacity-weighted average for
2000 was 53.17%, 53.73% in 1999, 52.58% in 1998 and 61.05% in 1997.

The total gross nuclear generation in Canada was 73,769,279 MWhe in 2000,
74,342,079 MWhe in 1999, and 72,751,676 MWhe in 1998.  In 1997, the most
recent year when 21 reactors were running, 84,477,424 MWhe were produced.

If one excludes the seven non-operational OPG reactors, the arithmetic
capacity factor for the remaining 14 reactors was 74.63% in 2000, 77.39% in
1999, 73.87% in 1998 and 66.78% in 1997.  The capacity-weighted values for
the same 14 reactors are 76.94% in 2000, 77.75% in 1999, 74.23% in 1998, and
67.68% in 1997.

In 1994,  Canada produced a record annual amount of nuclear-generated
electricity - 110,653,766 MWhe - with 22 reactors (Bruce-2 was still
operating).  The arithmetic average capacity was 76.39%, and the
capacity-weighted value was 75.64%.

The 2000 capacity factors (in %) of Canadian reactors is as follows.  The
numbers in brackets are the 1999, 1998 and 1997 numbers, respectively:
                           2000     (1999, 1998, 1997)
Bruce-5              91.46    (69.74, 73.36, 83.34)
Bruce-6              62.03    (91.15, 62.28, 63.83)
Bruce-7              70.63    (84.18, 66.67, 81.96)
Bruce-8              86.67    (54.86, 55.21, 84.71)
Darlington-1        81.86    (93.80, 84.00, 63.15)
Darlington-2        89.68    (84.53, 81.41, 62.44)
Darlington-3        84.97    (73.74, 94.64, 53.33)
Darlington-4        90.78    (81.13, 85.09, 67.03)
Pickering-5         58.74    (56.26, 78.17, 87.54)
Pickering-6         61.48    (74.97, 69.62, 75.27)
Pickering-7         46.90    (98.77, 68.72, 65.44)
Pickering-8         60.32    (78.19, 77.85, 8.28)

Gentilly-2           87.97    (68.49, 69.16,  76.15)
Point Lepreau     71.37    (73.58, 67.99,  62.50)


As for the other CANDU-6 units around the world, they did well for 2000
(1999, 1998 and 1997 numbers in brackets, respectively).
                  2000     (1999, 1998, 1997)
Embalse     77.12   (98.93, 86.70, 89.14)     #9 in the world for 1999.
Cernavoda   87.97   (84.05, 85.81, 87.32) 
Wolsong-1   80.88  (82.84, 78.34, 102.12)
Wolsong-2   90.79   (88.88, 81.81, 97.10)     W-2 only went commercial in
Summer 1997
Wolsong-3   100.89 (80.32, 98.54)               #5 in the world for 2000.
W-3 only went commercial in Summer 1998
Wolsong-4   92.19  (100.79)                        W-4 only went commercial
in Fall 1999


A total world production of 2.540 billion MWhe (gross) as compared to 2.490
billion in 1999, 2.426 billion in 1998 and 2.352 billion in 1997.

cheerio

Morgan Brown