Darlington Nuclear Generating Station

Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Bowmanville, Ontario. It is a large nuclear facility comprising four CANDU nuclear reactors with a total output of 3,512 MWe when all units are online, providing about 20 percent of Ontario's electricity needs, enough to serve a city of two million people. The reactor design is significantly more powerful than those used in previous CANDU sites at Pickering and Bruce, making its 4-unit plant the second-largest in Canada behind the 8-unit Bruce. It is named for the Township of Darlington, the name of the municipality in which it is located, which is now part of the amalgamated Municipality of Clarington. The plant began construction in September 1981 and planned to start initial operations in 1985. Several delays ensued, and the construction start on Units 3 and 4 was put off until 1984 and 1985. Unit 2 entered operation in 1990, followed by Unit 1 in 1992, and Units 3 and 4 in 1993. The delays and resulting cost overruns have made Darlington a primary case study for the anti-nuclear movement in Canada, and was one of the main reasons Ontario Hydro was broken up in 1999 and its debts paid off by special billings. After initial operations and shakeout, it is often among the most reliable plants in the world in terms of capacity factor. The plant completed a mid-

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