page_title: Churchill Falls Generating Station
section_title: Early investigations
hierarchical_section_title: Churchill Falls Generating Station / History / Early investigations
caption_attribution_description: English: Dominion of Newfoundland 30-cent stamp issued in July 1931, depicting Grand Falls (Churchill Falls), in Labrador. Français&#160;: Timbre de 30 cents émis en juillet 1931 par le Dominion of Newfoundland, illustrant Grand Falls (chute Churchill), au Labrador.
context_page_description: The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador. At 5,428 MW, it is the tenth largest in the world, and the second-largest in Canada, after the Robert-Bourassa generating station in northwestern Quebec.
  Rather than a single large dam, the plant's reservoir is contained by 88 dykes, totaling 64 km in length. Now called the Smallwood reservoir, it has a capacity of 33 cubic kilometres in a catchment area of about 72,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the Republic of Ireland. It drops over 305 metres to the site of the plant's 11 turbines.
  The plant's power house was hewn from solid granite 300 metres underground. It is about 300 metres long and as high as a 15-story building.
  The station cost almost a billion in 1970 Canadian dollars to build. Commissioned from 1971 to 1974, it is owned and operated by the Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation Limited, a joint venture between Nalcor Energy and Hydro-Québec. Workers at the station live in the purpose-built company town of Churchill Falls.
context_section_description: In 1915 Wilfred Thibaudeau surveyed the Labrador Plateau, then a part of Quebec. He designed a channel scheme to divert water before it arrived at the falls. The scheme would use the natural capacity of the drainage basin, which covers over 23,300 sq mi (60,000 km²), eliminating the need for the construction of dams. The advantage of the site was the river's drop of more than 300 metres in less than 32 km, and steady supply of water. These findings were confirmed in a 1947 survey, but development did not proceed due to the remoteness of the site and the distance from markets for the power.
  In 1954 the region was opened up by the completion of the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway which runs north from Sept-Îles, Quebec 575 km north through Labrador to Schefferville, Quebec. In 1963 a 225 MW generating station was built at Twin Falls to supply power to iron mining industries in western Labrador.
caption: In 1931, the Dominion of Newfoundland issued a 30-cent stamp depicting the falls.
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