Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located in Point Lepreau, New Brunswick. The facility derives its name from the headland situated at the westernmost part of Saint John County upon which it is located (west of the city of Saint John). A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. ... Motto: Spem reduxit (Hope restored) Official languages English, French Capital Fredericton Largest city Saint John Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson Premier Bernard Lord (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 10 10 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 11th 72 908 km² 2. ... Saint John County (2001 population 76,407) is located in southern New Brunswick, Canada. ... Saint John is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick and the oldest incorporated city in Canada. ...

The facility was constructed between 1975-1983 by the provincial Crown corporation, NB Power. 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In Commonwealth countries a Crown corporation is a state-controlled company or enterprise (a public corporation). ... NB Power (French: Energie NB), formerly known as New Brunswick Power Corporation is a provincially owned Crown Corporation. ...

The Point Lepreau station is the only nuclear facility located in eastern Canada and comprises 1 CANDU nuclear reactor located on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy, having a total output of 640 MW (capacity net) and 680 MW (gross net). The CANDU reactor is a pressurized-heavy water, natural-uranium power reactor designed in the 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario as well as several private industry participants. ... Core of a nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate (as opposed to a nuclear explosion, where the chain reaction occurs in a split second). ... The Bay of Fundy is a bay located on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. ...

Point Lepreau's CANDU reactor was designed to last 25 years and was scheduled to be mothballed by 2008. In July 2005 NB Power announced that it was awarding Atomic Energy of Canada Limited a $1.4 billion (CAD) contract for refurbishing the generating station. This will extend the reactor's lifespan by approximately 20 years. 2008 (MMVIII) will a Leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July is the seventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Atomic Energy of Canada Limited or AECL is a Canadian federal Crown corporation with the responsibility to manage Canadian nuclear policy, promote nuclear energy and research, and to oversee nuclear waste developed by Canadian nuclear reactors as well as manage the decommissioning of older reactors. ...

In 1990, a disgruntled employee took a sample of heavy water from the primary heat transport loop and loaded it into a water cooler. 8 employees drank some of the contaminated water. The incident was discovered when employees began leaving bioassay (urine) samples with elevated tritium levels. The quantities involved were well below levels which could induce heavy water toxicity, but several employees received elevated radiation doses from tritium and activated chemicals in the water. Heavy water is dideuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. ... Tritium (symbol T or 3H) is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. ... Heavy water is dideuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. ... Look up toxic and toxicity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Tritium (symbol T or 3H) is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. ...

See also

• List of Canadian nuclear generating stations