Safety of Nuclear Power Plants in Canada

March 19, 2011

The maps below show the position of Canada's fleet of nuclear power plants and AECL’s Chalk River Laboratories, along with any historical earthquakes recorded at or above magnitude 5 on the Richter scale. While there are many smaller seismic events across the country below magnitude 5, those events will not result in any damage or failure of any engineered industrial structures, systems and components even if they have not been explicitly designed to resist earthquakes.

Bruce A and Bruce B Nuclear Generating Stations
Darlington Nuclear Generating Station
Pickering A and Pickering B Nuclear Generating Stations
Gentilly-2 Nuclear Power Plant
Point Lepreau Generating Station
Chalk River Laboratories

All of Canada's nuclear power plants are built under very stringent design rules that take earthquakes into consideration, and with a bias towards being more cautious than needed.

It is generally accepted that in the central and eastern North America, earthquake intensity (as a measure of damage) drops at least one level every approximately 50 km distance from the epicentre. In western North America, the intensity drops approximately every 30 km distance from the epicentre.