Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear power plant

Name: Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear power plant
Address: CAN

Retired Canada Small

Gross capacity

25MW

Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear power plant is a pressurised heavy water reactor unit at Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear power plant in Canada rated at 25 MW gross. It is retired. Commercial operation began 1 Oct 1962.

Specification

Reactor type	Pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR)
Model	CANDU
Size	Small300 MWe or less
Coolant	Heavy water
Moderator	Heavy water
Gross capacity	25MW
Net capacity (reference)	22MW
Net capacity (design)	17MW
Thermal output	92MWt
NSSS vendor	AtkinsRéalis (Candu Energy)all vendors
Typical enrichment	Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235

Ownership & location

Site	Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) nuclear power plant
Unit	not stated
Country	Canada
Owner	AECL100%
Operator	Ontario Hydro
Coordinates	46.1867, -77.6578

Fuel chain for this unit

Fuel form

Natural uranium dioxide bundles

Enrichment

Natural uranium, 0.71% U-235 no enrichment required

Who makes this assembly

BWX Technologies CANDU fuel bundles, natural uranium
Cameco Corporation CANDU fuel bundles, natural uranium
China North Nuclear Fuel Company CANDU fuel bundles
KEPCO Nuclear Fuel CANDU fuel bundles
Nuclear Power Corporation of India PHWR fuel bundles, natural uranium

Upstream

This unit runs on natural uranium, so its fuel chain has no enrichment step at all: mine → mill → conversion → fabrication. That is the shortest fuel chain of any commercial reactor type, and it makes the operator independent of the four organisations that control enrichment worldwide.

Conversion

AEOI Cameco CNNC CNNC CNNC ConverDyn Orano Rosatom TVEL Westinghouse

Fabricator capability is recorded against reactor type and model line, not against named units, utilities do not publish fuel contracts. See the fuel chain.

Timeline

1 Jan 1958Construction start
11 Apr 1962First criticality
4 Jun 1962Grid connection
1 Oct 1962Commercial operation
1 Aug 1987Permanent shutdown

Other CANDU units

3 units worldwide share this model designation.

Unit	Country	Status	Gross MW
Sellafield (Candu) nuclear power plant 1	United Kingdom	Cancelled	740
Sellafield (Candu) nuclear power plant 2	United Kingdom	Cancelled	740

Sources

Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06 · this unit last researched by GEM on 2024-05-08
GEM.wiki entry (further reading) , CC BY-SA 4.0, linked, not quoted

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data