OTTAWA — For the first time in almost two decades, all 20 of Canada’s
nuclear power reactors are supplying electricity to the grid.
The
milestone was reached this week when the Point Lepreau reactor was
connected to New Brunswick’s electrical grid for the first time in since
March 2008.
The controversial refurbishment project to extend the
plant’s operational life to 2025 is three years behind schedule and $1
billion over its $1.4-billion budget.
In Ontario, the Bruce Power
generating station at Tiverton is now running all eight of its reactors
for the first time in 17 years. Bruce’s refurbished Unit 2 reactor was
restarted last week and synchronized to the province’s grid, the first
time it has seen service since 1995.
Showing posts with label Bruce Nuclear Power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Nuclear Power. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Nuclear power plant in Canada closer to commercial operation
Bruce Power on August 3 said Unit 1 of the Bruce A nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada, is operating as its progresses through the final stages of commissioning and testing in preparation of raising power and synchronizing to Ontario’s electricity grid. The 750 MW Unit 1 is on track to achieve commercial operation in the third quarter of 2012. Bruce Power said it continues to make progress with the return to service of Bruce A Units 1 and 2, while making ongoing investments in Units 3 and 4.
Work is also underway to ensure Unit 2 will soon be generating electricity following a non-nuclear issue that occurred within an hour of synchronization to Ontario’s electricity grid in May. This work program is expected to be complete and Unit 2 generating electricity in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Bruce Power will also begin an expanded outage investment program on Unit 4 immediately, in support of extending the life of the unit to the end of decade. The planned maintenance outage will align the lifespan of Unit 4 to that of Unit 3, which recently underwent a $300 million investment project that extended its life by up to an additional 10 years.
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Work is also underway to ensure Unit 2 will soon be generating electricity following a non-nuclear issue that occurred within an hour of synchronization to Ontario’s electricity grid in May. This work program is expected to be complete and Unit 2 generating electricity in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Bruce Power will also begin an expanded outage investment program on Unit 4 immediately, in support of extending the life of the unit to the end of decade. The planned maintenance outage will align the lifespan of Unit 4 to that of Unit 3, which recently underwent a $300 million investment project that extended its life by up to an additional 10 years.
Read More...
Monday, May 21, 2012
Restart of Bruce reactor delayed
The long-awaited return to service of the refurbished unit 2 of the Bruce A nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada, has been delayed due to damage in an electrical generator on the non-nuclear side of the plant.
Plant operator Bruce Power received permission from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in mid-March to restart Bruce A unit 2 following the completion of refurbishment work on the 750 MWe Candu 6, which has been idle for almost 20 years. However, during recent preparations to synchronize the unit to the electrical grid, an unspecified incident occurred which caused "some damage" to the electrical generator on the non-nuclear side of Bruce's operations. The generator had been replaced as part of the refurbishment project by Siemens Canada. Bruce Power noted that the electrical protection system "worked as designed and the approach to connect to the grid was stopped."
Following initial inspections, Bruce Power said, "It is clear repairs will need to be made to this electrical generator." The company said that Siemens Canada would help assess the situation and then complete the repairs "as soon as possible." Bruce Power noted, "Although the unit 2 reactor is ready to operate, the repair to this non-nuclear system will have an impact on when unit 2 will be able to deliver electricity to the grid." It added, "This delay will not have an impact on Ontario's electricity system reliability due in part to the strong performance of Bruce Power's operating fleet, nor is it expected to materially change the cost of the restart project."
TransCanada Corporation, which owns 49% of Bruce A and 32% of Bruce B, said that the incident "will likely mean unit 2 will not be synchronized to the Ontario electrical grid as previously stated in the second quarter of 2012."
However, Mike Burke, vice president of Bruce A operations, commented: "While this is clearly seen as a setback, with this repair isolated to one non-nuclear system on unit 2, we can continue to advance the unit 1 work program." Unit 1 is expected to resume commercial operations during the third quarter of 2012.
The company noted that other activities at the Bruce A plant are proceeding as planned. Unit 3 is expected to be restarted "within days" following a C$300 million ($293 million) modernization program which began in November 2011. That program will extend the operating life of the unit by ten years. Meanwhile, in its latest operating cycle, Bruce A unit 4 has been operating continuously for almost 500 days.
Units 1 and 2 at the four-unit Bruce A plant started up in 1977, but unit 2 was shut down in 1995 because a steam generator suffered corrosion after a lead shielding blanket used during maintenance was mistakenly left inside. In the late 1990s then-owner Ontario Hydro decided to lay up all four units at the plant to concentrate resources on other reactors in its fleet, and unit 1 was taken out of service in December 1997 with units 3 and 4 following in 1998. The four units at sister power station Bruce B continued to operate. Bruce Power took over the operations of both Bruce plants from Ontario Hydro in 2001 and restarted units 3 and 4 by early 2004. Bruce A units 3 and 4 are likely to undergo refurbishments once units 1 and 2 are back in operation.
The decision to refurbish the units followed a 2005 agreement by Bruce Power and the government of Ontario to refurbish the two 750 MWe Candu reactors as a faster option than building new ones in the face of impending power shortages.
Candu reactors are designed to undergo refurbishment after approximately 25 years of operation, requiring a major outage but allowing reactor life to be extended by up to 30 years.
LINK
Plant operator Bruce Power received permission from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in mid-March to restart Bruce A unit 2 following the completion of refurbishment work on the 750 MWe Candu 6, which has been idle for almost 20 years. However, during recent preparations to synchronize the unit to the electrical grid, an unspecified incident occurred which caused "some damage" to the electrical generator on the non-nuclear side of Bruce's operations. The generator had been replaced as part of the refurbishment project by Siemens Canada. Bruce Power noted that the electrical protection system "worked as designed and the approach to connect to the grid was stopped."
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| The turbine hall of Bruce A unit 2 (Image: Bruce Power) |
Following initial inspections, Bruce Power said, "It is clear repairs will need to be made to this electrical generator." The company said that Siemens Canada would help assess the situation and then complete the repairs "as soon as possible." Bruce Power noted, "Although the unit 2 reactor is ready to operate, the repair to this non-nuclear system will have an impact on when unit 2 will be able to deliver electricity to the grid." It added, "This delay will not have an impact on Ontario's electricity system reliability due in part to the strong performance of Bruce Power's operating fleet, nor is it expected to materially change the cost of the restart project."
TransCanada Corporation, which owns 49% of Bruce A and 32% of Bruce B, said that the incident "will likely mean unit 2 will not be synchronized to the Ontario electrical grid as previously stated in the second quarter of 2012."
However, Mike Burke, vice president of Bruce A operations, commented: "While this is clearly seen as a setback, with this repair isolated to one non-nuclear system on unit 2, we can continue to advance the unit 1 work program." Unit 1 is expected to resume commercial operations during the third quarter of 2012.
The company noted that other activities at the Bruce A plant are proceeding as planned. Unit 3 is expected to be restarted "within days" following a C$300 million ($293 million) modernization program which began in November 2011. That program will extend the operating life of the unit by ten years. Meanwhile, in its latest operating cycle, Bruce A unit 4 has been operating continuously for almost 500 days.
Units 1 and 2 at the four-unit Bruce A plant started up in 1977, but unit 2 was shut down in 1995 because a steam generator suffered corrosion after a lead shielding blanket used during maintenance was mistakenly left inside. In the late 1990s then-owner Ontario Hydro decided to lay up all four units at the plant to concentrate resources on other reactors in its fleet, and unit 1 was taken out of service in December 1997 with units 3 and 4 following in 1998. The four units at sister power station Bruce B continued to operate. Bruce Power took over the operations of both Bruce plants from Ontario Hydro in 2001 and restarted units 3 and 4 by early 2004. Bruce A units 3 and 4 are likely to undergo refurbishments once units 1 and 2 are back in operation.
The decision to refurbish the units followed a 2005 agreement by Bruce Power and the government of Ontario to refurbish the two 750 MWe Candu reactors as a faster option than building new ones in the face of impending power shortages.
Candu reactors are designed to undergo refurbishment after approximately 25 years of operation, requiring a major outage but allowing reactor life to be extended by up to 30 years.
LINK
Monday, March 19, 2012
Bruce Power - Canada - Leak discovered at nuclear plant
OWEN SOUND, ON - Bruce Power's program to bring two refurbished nuclear reactors back online suffered a setback on the weekend when a leak was discovered as the company restarted one of them.
Officials discovered the leak in the moderator system early Saturday.
"Somewhere within that system a valve or part of a valve did fail and that's what led to the leak," company spokesman John Peevers said Monday.
"They isolated it, the repairs are underway and as part of our operating procedures we returned to what is called a guaranteed shutdown stage, which we were just coming out of."
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission posted a statement on its website that says "there was no release to the environment and no plant worker received any dose (of radiation)...The other units in the Bruce A station were not affected."
Peevers said the setback "was not entirely unexpected."
"We are going to be heating up systems and starting up equipment that hasn't been operational for 17 years. We knew we were going to hit some bumps along the road. That's why we're taking a slow, steady, safety-first approach," he said.
Peevers said it's not expected to be a complicated repair job, but he couldn't say how much the repairs will cost.
On Friday, Bruce Power received permission from the CNSC to remove the reactor shutdown guarantees on the Unit 2 reactor, which allowed the company to start it up for final checks before bringing it online.
When it's fully operational and online, the Unit 2 reactor will be capable of producing enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.
When the Unit 1 and 2 restart project was originally announced in 2005, the cost of the program was estimated at $2.75 billion, with electricity production to begin by late 2009 or early 2010.
The cost has risen to $4.8 billion.
The power plant is located about 240 km northwest of Toronto on the eastern shore of Lake Huron.
LINKFriday, March 16, 2012
Bruce Power nuclear unit to restart after 17 years
Bruce Power to be the world's largest nuclear facility
The Canadian Press - Posted: Mar 16, 2012 2:46 PM ET - Last Updated: Mar 16, 2012 3:49 PM ET
Regulators have cleared Unit 2 of the Bruce A nuclear power plant in Ontario to restart after a nearly two-decade-long slumber.
Bruce Power said Friday it can complete final safety checks and prepare to synchronize the reactor, which has been out of service since 1995, to Ontario's electrical grid.
"A project of this magnitude has never been done before on a CANDU reactor and that cannot be overlooked," said Bruce Power CEO Duncan Hawthorne in a release.
"We have learned many lessons from our work on Unit 2 and have implemented them on Unit 1 which is following very closely behind Unit 2 and should achieve a similar milestone in a few short months."
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's authorization to power up the reactor effectively ends the construction and commissioning phases of the refurbishment project, Calgary-based TransCanada Corp., a part-owner of the plant, said in a separate release.
"This positive development represents the final major step necessary toward bringing the reactor into service," said CEO Russ Girling.
"When we committed to additional investments in Bruce A, we said the restart project was an attractive, long-term growth opportunity for TransCanada. With this milestone being reached, we move further toward realizing the sustainable earnings we expect Bruce Power to generate."
Work on Unit 1 still underway
Work on Unit 1 of Bruce A is still underway, and operations on that reactor should restart during the third quarter of 2012.
TransCanada said it expects its share of the capital cost of the Bruce refurbishment to be $2.4-billion.
Bruce Power, on the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, consists of two generating stations: Bruce A and Bruce B. Together they house eight reactors, six of which have been operational for the past several years.
Other partners in the Bruce Power partnership include Borealis Infrastructure, which is wholly owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, uranium miner Cameco Corp., the Power Workers' Union and the Society of Energy Professionals.
Once the work is complete, Bruce Power will be the world's largest nuclear facility, generating more than 6,200 megawatts or about 25 per cent of Ontario's power. It currently produces 4,700 megawatts.
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