Churchill River (Atlantic)

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Catchment area of ​​the Churchill River

The Churchill River ( Alternative name: Fleuve Churchill) is a river in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador which flows east of the Smallwood Reservoir in Labrador over Lake Melville in the Atlantic Ocean.

The river is about 400 km long ( including source flux Ashuanipi River 856 km ) and drains 79,800 km ².

Churchill Falls

Churchill Falls at the same waterfalls is a hydroelectric power plant on the Churchill River with a design capacity of 5428 MW ( equivalent to the output of about six nuclear power plants ). More power plants are to produce a total of 9200 MW.

The development of Churchill Falls has led to tensions between the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec. The operating company, Hydro-Québec, which contributed the bulk of the funding and the connection transferred to the North American power grid, are accused to insert an unjustifiably high share of the profits. Hydro-Québec set off against the energy of the Churchill Falls power plant to the 1969 agreed prices.

The river was originally known as " Mishtashipu " or " Big River " in the Innu. 1839 John MacLean called him " Hamilton River" by Sir Charles Hamilton, who was governor of Newfoundland from 1818 to 1825. From 1 February 1965, he was renamed in honor of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

2012 met with Canadian salvage diver in the river on a ship wreck. Whether it is a German U-boat from World War II, is still uncertain.