Bruce Power Commences $116m Planned Maintenance

Bruce Power, Canada’s first private nuclear generator, providing 30% of Ontario’s power, has announced that a $116 million planned maintenance and inspection program is underway on Unit 8 at Bruce B.

The 822-megawatt unit was removed from service on 15 January after more than 100 consecutive days of producing clean, low-cost and reliable electricity for Ontario businesses and families. The unit will return to service in the second quarter of 2016.

“There are roughly 24,000 tasks built into a comprehensive plan which will see maintenance performed on almost every system throughout the entire unit,” said Pierre Pilon, senior vice president for Bruce B. “The program will set Unit 8 up for safe, reliable performance through another strong operational cycle.”

While Unit 8 is shut down, workers will also remove Cobalt-60 which will eventually be used to sterilize disposable medical supplies. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates more than 640,000 major surgeries are performed each day around the world. Sterilized disposable medical devices are used in virtually all of these procedures.

Cobalt-60 is supplied to over 200 gamma irradiators in 55 countries that sterilize surgical gloves, gowns, masks, syringes, sutures, catheters, pharmaceuticals, implants and tissue, as well as several products used in the food and consumer products industries.

The Unit 8 outage is the first planned maintenance and inspection program of 2016 and comes on the heels of a stellar production year for Bruce A and Bruce B which set records for electricity output in 2015, all while providing the province with 2,400 megawatts of flexible generation, reducing output as demand across Ontario fluctuates. Bruce Power completed an extensive planned maintenance outage program in 2015, investing about $400 million private dollars into its publicly owned assets.

“By investing in regular maintenance, we are ensuring the units will operate with a high degree of reliability into the future setting the stage for refurbishment which will get underway with Unit 6 in 2020,” Pilon said.

There are roughly 24,000 tasks built into a comprehensive plan.

Bruce Power operates the world’s largest operating nuclear generating facility. The company’s site in Tiverton, Ontario is home to eight CANDU reactors, each one capable of generating enough low-cost, reliable, safe and clean electricity to meet the annual needs of a city the size of Hamilton. Formed in 2001, Bruce Power is an all-Canadian partnership among Borealis Infrastructure Management (a division of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System), TransCanada, the Power Workers’ Union and the Society of Energy Professionals. A majority of Bruce Power’s employees are also owners in the business.