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  Bruce Power Site Photo

 Bruce Power, Inverhuron, Ontario   
The photo, left, comes from the world's largest uranium supplier, Cameco Corporation, who invite you to capture this and other images from:  www.cameco.com

Among many properties, Cameco owns uranium mines in Northern Saskatchewan and, most recently, Wyoming.  A Cameco press release of June 19, 2002, announced that, through subsidiaries & subject to regulatory approval, the company bought "Smith Ranch uranium in situ leach (ISL) mine and various other ISL properties located in Wyoming from BHP Billiton’s subsidiary Rio Algom Mining LLC (Rio Algom)."

Cameco is also a minority partner in and sole fuel supplier to Bruce Power in Inverhuron.  
Bruce Power's ownership structure:
United Kingdom electricity giant, British Energy: 79.8% ;
Cameco Corp: 15.0%;
Power Workers Union: 4.0%;
Society of Energy Professionals 1.2%). 
Bruce Power leases 8 reactors on the Bruce site from Ontario Power Generation Inc.  The caption to the photo above says that 4 reactors (power plants in the foreground building called Bruce B) are "on line".   These alone produce enough electricity for a city the size of Toronto (pop approx. 2.6 million), located 250 kms. east south east of the plant. 

There are four more reactors in a building called Bruce A (located at the far background on the bay at the top of this picture).  Currently, all four of these reactors are out of service.  However, two units (Bruce A units 3 & 4) are expected to be back on line as early as April 2003.  When all six generators (Bruce A 3 & 4, Bruce B 5, 6, 7, 8) are in operation, Bruce Power will generate 4,600 megawatts of electrical power, 15% of Ontario's capacity. 

The photo above shows most, but not all, of the Bruce Power site and operations.  The cluster of small buildings in the upper right is the site of the Western Waste Management Facilty (WWMF), formerly known as Radioactive Waste Operations Site 2 (RWOS 2). OPG publication “Neighbours”, Spring, 1999 – contains an image and description of the waste management facility .  The WWMF is owned and operated by Ontario Power Generation, and is home to storage buildings, in-ground storage containers and an incinerator.  The WWMF stores over 50,000 cubic metres of low and medium level waste from all of Ontario’s nuclear power facilities.

The cooling pools at the reactor buildings (Bruce A & B) currently house 14,000 tons of high-level waste (used fuel bundles), but are now almost full.  The Western Waste Management Facility is being expanded (not shown in this photo) to accommodate new high-level waste storage in above ground silos for Bruce used fuel bundles. 

The used fuel bundles will be moved from the cooling pools at the reactor buildings to the new above ground storage site at the WWMF.  This will free up space in the cooling pools for additional used fuel bundles generated over the next 20 years of operation.  In total, between the cooling pools at the reactor buildings and the new above ground storage at the WWMF (approximately 2 miles from the reactor buildings), it is projected that the Bruce nuclear site will store some 35,000 tons of high-level waste.