Results
This section outlines the final results of this GIS research project and concludes with an explanation of the most appropriate location for a nuclear power plant in northern British Columbia. The final results for the least-cost pathway analysis for four possible site locations has also been added to this section to supplement the results from the multi-criteria evaluation conclusions. The results of the first WLC evaluation outline a significant number of possible site locations mostly based on proximity to moderate sized lakes and sufficiently sized towns and cities delineated (Figure 6.1). Suitable regional levels include areas north and northwest of Fort Nelson in the Northern Rockies, central Peace River near Fort Saint John and the eastern and southern sections of Lake Williston, and the central Bulkley Valley and Nechako areas west and north of Prince George (Figure 6.2).
The second WLC analysis delineates three significant regions in central and eastern sections of Lake Williston and Charlie Lake north of Fort Saint John in the Peace River district and Babine Lake north of the town of Burns Lake in the western Bulkley Valley (Figure 6.3 and Figure 6.4). The area along Tahtsa Lake in the southwest corner of the Bulkley-Nechako district was also determined in this analysis to have high suitability, however, because of its remote location a significant distance from viable towns, this area was eventually not realistically considered.
The final WLC evaluation focused on examining criteria centered around First Nations populations displayed large areas of moderate or elevated suitability based on the high factor weight placed on the First Nations reserve dataset (Figure 6.5). However, the trends of the central Peace River district near Fort Saint John and along the eastern shores of Lake Williston continue to be present when the natural breaks reclassification methodology is employed splitting the high digital number values (Figure 6.6).
Figure 6.7 displays the final multi-criteria evaluation rendered based on the combination of all three weighted images through the use of the INTERSECTION (AND) boolean overlay. Three significant regions that can be identified as having high suitability ranges include: Charlie Lake north of Fort Saint John, eastern sections of Lake Williston near Hudson’s Hope and the region of Topley Landing on Babine Lake northeast of Houston (Figure 6.8). When compared to locale suitable municipalities, another location that may have been suitable for development was the southern section of Lake Williston because of the close proximity to the town of Mackenzie. Although this region presents as a lesser area of highest suitability levels, it was still considered as a fourth possible location site.
The four site locations of Charlie Lake, east Lake Williston near Hudson’s Hope, Topley Landing and Mackenzie were used to carry out the four least-cost pathways analysis to determine length and suitable pathways connecting nuclear power plant sites with existing BC Hydro power lines. These raster pathway images were then vectorized using the “RASTERVECTOR” module in order to enhance cartographic visualization. The Hudson’s Hope location has the shortest pathway because of its proximity to the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and power lines would only need to travel a distance of 5.4 kilometres, while two similar pathways were determined at the Topley Landing site measure of mean distance of 64.3 kilometres. Additionally, the Topley Landing site is located 80.3 kilometres from the nearest suitable municipality of Houston (Figure 6.9). As a result of lower suitability areas and increased pathway distances, both Topley Landing and Mackenzie were discarded as the optimum suitability location.
Figure 6.9: This map shows the four proposed site locations based on the multi-criteria evaluation performed and supplementary vectorized electricity least-cost pathways connecting each plant to existing BC Hydro primary power line sources. Additionally, the legend outlines the fourteen suitable municipalities examined and the two existing hydroelectic power generating stations located in the Peace River district: W.A.C. Bennett Dam (closer to the Hudson's Hope site location) and Peace River Dam (the second of the two located further to the east). Least-cost pathways denoted as electricity line routes were determined by land use friction surfaces (parametres outline in Table 5.4). The pathway at the Hudson's Hope site is hidden because of its short lenght at this scale. The Topley Landing site had a mean pathway distance of 80.3km, the Mackenzie site had a distance of 30.9km, the Fort St. John site had a distance of 13.5km and the Hudson's Hope site had a distance of 5.4km. A supplementary map outlining the spatial extent within the regional districts of Peace River, Fraser-Fort George and Bulkley-Nechako is shown.
Despite the Hudson’s Hope location having a shorter least-cost pathway distance then the Fort Saint John station, the difference is relatively inconsequential because of the difference in suitability between the sites. The Charlie Lake site ten kilometres north of Fort Saint John above all other locations had the strongest site suitability and based on these analyses, this research proposes that this location poses the best location for a nuclear power plant of the regional districts examined.