An explosion Monday ceased operations at the Ontario Power Generation plant at Atikokan, Ontario.
At approximately 10:45 a.m. Monday, according to OPG officials, an explosion occurred somewhere inside the coal gallery area of the plant, causing a fire and damage to the cladding, or siding, of the structure.
“The good news is that all employees are safe and accounted for, and there are no injuries reported,” said Ted Gruetzner, OPG media relations manager Monday.
“There were small fires and they were put out by our emergency response team in cooperation with local fire crews,” he added. “We are not sure of the cause or the extent of damage.”
Atikokan is located about 90 miles west of Fort Frances.
The total number of all shift employees and office staff numbers around 90 people, according to Gruetzner, and the unconfirmed estimate of the number on hand during the explosion could be in the neighborhood of 20 people.
The plant was built in 1985 and burns lignite, soft coal mined in western Canada. It provides regional system grid support with a capacity of 230 megawatts, in comparison to bigger coal plants that generate 2,000 megawatts.
“The plant does have nitrogen oxide burners and runs fairly clean using low sulfur coal,” he added.
Gruetzner said that the plant was not in operation at the time and did not affect power to the area. The plant runs as needed and its power was not required Monday.
Power to the area comes through other grid support from Thunder Bay, or is imported from Manitoba and other provinces. OPG generates 22,000 megawatts altogether, with source power from three nuclear, five fossil fuel and 64 hydroelectric generating stations.
