All eight massive steam generators have now been placed into unit 3 of the Bruce NPP. This marks a major milestone in Bruce Power’s Major Component Replacement (MCR) Project, which 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. The Life-Extension Programme and MCR Projects will extend the operational life of each reactor by 30-35 years.
The Unit 3 MCR continues to progress on plan and on schedule with a return-to-service date for the renewed unit planned for 2026. Overlapping MCR outages will continue on the Bruce site until 2033.
Bruce Power said installing all eight hulking steam generators required a lot of heavy lifting. First, the 300-tonne steam drums had to be moved out of the way on a track system and set aside for inspection and maintenance. Over the past six months, Bruce Power and the Steam Generator Replacement Team (SGRT), a 50/50 joint venture between Aecon and SGT (a partnership between Framatome Canada Ltd and United Canadian Operations Ltd), organised lifting the 100-tonne steam generators out of the Bruce A station through the roof. The replacement generators were lifted back in using Mammoet’s 100-metre-high PTC-35 crane.
“This was a huge undertaking that required more than a year-and-a-half of planning just to get to the execution phase, which was delivered safely and successfully through a high degree of collaboration,” said Rob Hoare, Bruce Power’s Vice-President of MCR Execution.
The unit 3 steam generators were produced by BWXT in Cambridge approximately 20 years ago and stored on the Bruce Power site as the company continues to work ahead on components for the remainder of the MCR project. Last August, Bruce Power and SGRT signed a CAD700m ($492m) contract for the replacement of steam generators in the remaining MCR outages in units 5, 7&8. Bruce Power’s CAD13bn refurbishment is Canada’s third largest infrastructure project (behind British Columbia’s Peace River Site C hydroelectric project, and Ontario’s Go transit expansion), and is Ontario’s largest clean-energy infrastructure project. Bruce Power’s Life Extension is unique in that it’s being funded through private investment.
“This milestone demonstrates the success of our team on the Bruce MCR project in executing steam generator replacements safely, on time and with excellent quality,” said Aaron Johnson, Senior Vice-President, Nuclear, Aecon Group. Erik Dorman, Executive Vice-President of Framatome’s Installed Base Business Unit in North America said: “We will continue to plan ahead and deliver safely and with the highest quality to ensure the Bruce MCR remains on schedule to meet the clean energy demand in Ontario.”
