Bruce Power has signed a key long-term service contract with ATS Industrial Automation for its remaining Major Component Replacement (MCR) MR projects. The contract, valued at CAD62.8m ($46.6m), builds on the longstanding strategic partnership between Bruce Power and ATS to develop various automation tools and innovations to support the safe, on time, and on budget delivery of Bruce Power’s MCR programme.
The MCR project began in January 2020. The eight pressurised heavy-water Candu reactor units at the Bruce site in Ontario (Bruce A – units 1-4, and Bruce B – units 4-8) began commercial operation between 1977 and 1987. Bruce Power’s CAD13bn ($10bn) Life Extension Programme, which includes Asset Management and MCR, began in 2016. MCR, which began with unit 6 and also includes units 3-8, will extend the life of the site until 2064. Units 1&2 have already been refurbished and were returned to service in 2012. Work began on unit 3 in March 2023. Unit 6 was taken offline for the refurbishment in January 2020 and was returned to service in 2023.
Bruce Power says the agreement builds on the success of the first-of-a-kind robotic tooling deployed at the unit 3 MCR and automation of reactor inspection and installation work. It cements the partnership with ATS to provide best-in-class automated tools to skilled tradespeople to drive Ontario’s largest clean-energy infrastructure project.
“By combining the newest technology with proven best-practices, we can continue to deliver on-time, on-budget refurbishments to the highest standard of safety,” said David Furr, Vice-President, Supply Chain at Bruce Power. “We have seen tremendous value from the Ontario-made automated tooling from ATS in driving safety, quality and efficiency in our MCR programme, and this continued partnership will be essential to improving performance with each successive unit to benefit the people of Ontario.”
Under the agreement, ATS will be on site at Bruce Power as part of the Tooling Performance Team, supporting the use of the ATS automated fuel channel removal tools, automated inspection tools, automated calandria tube installation and semi-automated fuel channel installation tools for Bruce Power’s MCR projects in units 4, 5, 7 and 8. The long-term agreement, set to start in 2025 and last until 2032, will also oversee the refurbishment and reconditioning of the tooling in order to support its continued operation and performance.
ATS will continue to expand its full lifecycle service offering and innovative automated solutions, while strengthening their strategic partnership with Bruce Power.
“The automated inspection and installation tooling developed by ATS for Bruce Power delivers an unmatched level of precision, safety and efficiency by automating manual and repetitive processes, allowing skilled tradespeople to focus on other value-added tasks,” said ATS Vice-President for Commercial Nuclear Matthew Wong. “ATS has the expertise and knowledge to assist the skilled tradespeople in the completion of the reactor refurbishment activities safely and effectively.”
