Canada’s Bruce Power on 23 April signed advanced manufacturing contracts worth CAD914m ($712m) for its Major Component Replacement (MCR) programme, which gets underway in 2020 and which will allow the site’s nuclear units to provide electricity to Ontario until 2064.
Bruce Power operates eight Candu reactors – units 1-4 at Bruce A and units 5-8 at Bruce B. Units 1 and 2 at Bruce A have already been refurbished. Bruce Power’s CAD$13bn life-extension programme, which started in January 2016 with Asset Management Program investments, includes MCRs on units 3-8. The programme remains on time and budget.
The MCR agreements include: $642m to BWXT Canada for the manufacture of 32 steam generators; $144m to Laker Energy Products for end fittings, liners and flow elements; $62m to Cameco Fuel Manufacturing, for calandria tubes and annulus spacers for all six MCRs; and $66m for Nu-Tech Precision Metals for zirconium alloy pressure tubes for units 6 and 3.
By extending the life of Bruce Power’s reactors to 2064, the company will create and sustain 22,000 jobs annually, directly and indirectly, across Ontario, while investing $4bn a year into the province’s economy. Bruce Power will produce 30% of Ontario’s electricity. Unit 6 will be the first to undergo refurbishment, starting in 2020, and the programme is expected to be completed in 2053.
Photo: Bruce Nuclear Station
