Energy Alberta is understood to be looking for partners to develop a reactor-based power plant to refine oil sands located in the north of the region into bitumen.

According to media reports, Energy Alberta intends to install a 700 MW Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) Candu-6 reactor at a cost of around C$3 billion ($2.7 billion).

The reactor, which is scheduled to become operational in 2016, will provide process steam for a plant that will extract about 150,000 bpd of bitumen.