Even a Candu reactor isn't expensive compared to the other capital investments in the oil sands. The pipeline production and installation and dedicated land already exist (between sites, plants, and headed south), and such could be twinned for high pressure steam.
All of the existing refining/cracking plants need to co-generate electricity as well.
And if your backyard is a giant greasy sand box (which, granted, is getting nicer every day), with dozens of industrial crude plants churning non stop 50 km north, a Candu isn't that much of a problem.
This is a very real and feasable idea. The initial costs of the reactor would be large, but considering the savings in synthcrude per barrell cost of current extration, plus the increased extraction made possible by the nuclear plant, plus the energy demand for the plants and the growing population, it would probably be the most viable nuclear reactor(s) in history.
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