Gentilly Nuclear Generating Station
Gentilly Nuclear Generating Station (Centrale nucléaire de Gentilly in French) is a former nuclear power station located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Bécancour, Quebec, 100 km north east of Montreal. The site contained two nuclear reactors; Gentilly-1, a 250 MW CANDU-BWR prototype, was marred by technical problems and shut down in 1977, and Gentilly-2, a 675-MW CANDU-6 reactor operated commercially by the government-owned public utility Hydro-Québec between 1983 and 2012. These were the only power generating nuclear reactors in Quebec.
| Gentilly Nuclear Generating Station | |
|---|---|
The Gentilly-2 (left) and Gentilly-1 (right) nuclear generating stations | |
| Official name | Centrale nucléaire de Gentilly |
| Country | Canada |
| Location | Bécancour, Quebec |
| Coordinates | 46°23′45″N 72°21′25″W |
| Status | safe storage (pools) pending dismantling |
| Construction began | 1973 |
| Commission date | October 1, 1983 |
| Decommission date | December 28, 2012 |
| Construction cost | CAD 1.3 billion |
| Owner(s) | Hydro-Québec |
| Operator(s) | Hydro-Québec |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | CANDU-BWR CANDU PHWR |
| Reactor supplier | Atomic Energy of Canada Limited |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | None |
| Units cancelled | 1 × 640 MW |
| Units decommissioned | 1 × 250 MW 1 × 675 MW |
| Nameplate capacity | 925 MW |
| Capacity factor | 76.4% |
| Annual net output | 3,491 GW·h |
| External links | |
| Website | Hydro-Québec: Gentilly-2 |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
The Gentilly reactors were constructed in stages between 1966 and 1983 and were originally part of a plan for 30-35 nuclear reactors in Quebec. A third reactor, Gentilly-3, was scheduled to be built on the same site but was cancelled because of a drop in demand growth in the late 1970s.
In October 2012, it was decided for economic reasons not to proceed with the refurbishment of Gentilly-2, and to decommission the power plant instead. The process will take approximately 50 years to complete. In December of that same year, the remaining reactor was shut down and the decommissioning process started.
In August 2023, Hydro-Québec reported it was assessing the state of the plant to determine whether or not the Gentilly-2 CANDU reactor could be recommissioned. This came as the province of Quebec looked towards options to increase its production of clean electricity. It was decided to not proceed with recommissioning Gentilly-2 due to social acceptability issues.