It was around this time last year that a renewed Unit 6 reactor was starting up (or, achieving first criticality to use official nuclear terms) before being declared commercially operational in September following a successful Major Component Replacement (MCR) outage.
The Unit 6 Major Component Replacement outage was completed ahead of schedule, on plan, by a dedicated team of skilled workers and tradespeople who were able to exceed top safety performance for large projects.
Yes, it was a shining success story as Bruce Power completed its first of six planned MCR outages with strong performance, but we cannot rest on our laurels. In fact, in order to deliver Ontario’s largest clean-energy project successfully, we’ve vowed to improve our cost and schedule performance in each successive MCR outage.
As the Independent Electricity System Operator forecasts the demand for clean energy to rise dramatically in the coming decades due to Ontario’s economic and electrification growth, Bruce Power’s Life Extension Program and MCR Project, along with our Project 2030 initiatives to improve performance of existing assets, will secure more than 7,000 megawatts of clean energy by the 2030s.
Today, our Unit 3 MCR outage is progressing well, and planning continues for the Unit 4 MCR outage, set to being in 2025.
The removal series on Unit 3 was recently completed ahead of schedule as part of the Fuel Channel Feeder Replacement (FCFR) program, which is being carried out in conjunction with Shoreline, a joint venture between Aecon, AtkinsRéalis and United Engineers & Constructors. The FCFR program includes the removal and replacement of pressure tubes, calandria tubes, and feeders inside the reactor. Shoreline completed the FCFR program for Unit 6 and has also been awarded the contract for Bruce Power’s remaining MCR projects in Units 4, 5, 7 and 8.
This expertise, combined with innovation in tooling, will allow us to improve on the already strong performance seen in the Unit 6 MCR outage.
The large MCR Training Centre, visible from Highway 21 in Kincardine, is a hub of activity as tradespeople are being trained to operate new, innovative automate tooling that will bring efficiencies to the FCFR program.
In the coming weeks, millwrights, boilermakers, and electricians from Shoreline will be commissioning, maintaining, and remotely operating automatic tooling through the inspection series. Thousands of components on the reactor face will be rigorously examined and conditioned before they can start rebuilding the reactor.
If you’re on the beach and you look toward the Bruce Power site, you may see a massive, red crane. The Mammoet PCT 35 has a boom the length of a football field and beginning this month, it will be used to lift Unit 3’s eight, 90-tonne generators and two 300-ton stream drums out of the Bruce A powerhouse roof by the Steam Generator Replacement Team.
