POWER August 2010 - 46

NUCLEAR POWER
Bruce A Proves There Are Second
Acts in Nuclear Power
The refurbishment and restart of all four CANDU reactors at Bruce A may be
Ontario's most significant and complex power generation project since
the first phase of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station was built more
than 30 years ago. Units 1 and 2 are expected to be synchronized in 2011
and return to commercial service by early 2012, joining Units 3 and 4,
which restarted in 2004 and 2003 respectively. POWER visited Bruce A in
April to witness the project's progress.
By James M. Hylko and Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
I
n its first act, Bruce Nuclear Generating
Station-whose Bruce A and Bruce B
stations sit on the eastern shore of Lake
Huron, about 155 miles northwest of Toronto-was
the king of nuclear capacity factors.
Thanks to the refurbishment of the long-idle
Bruce A, it may become the king of capacity
factors in its second act as well.
Bruce A and Bruce B each house four
CANDU pressurized heavy water nuclear
reactors (see sidebar " Inside the CANDU
Reactor, " p. TK). Bruce A reactors (Units 1
through 4) entered commercial service during
1977-79 and were followed by Bruce B
reactors (Units 5 through 8) between 1984
and 1987 (Figure 1). All eight units featured
a stellar operating record through the 1980s.
In 1981, Unit 1 operated with a 97% capacity
factor, garnering accolades as the number
one reactor in the world. In 1982, Unit 3 set
a new world record of 494 days of continuous
operation. In addition, Bruce A was the
most reliable multi-unit station in the world
in 1984, with all four units finishing the year
with capacity factors greater than 90%.
These performance figures may seem average
by today's standards, but they were stellar
25 years ago. In contrast, the U.S. nuclear
fleet's average capacity factor was an embarrassing
56.3% in 1984. By 1987, Bruce Units
3, 4, 6, and 7 were on the global top 10 list of
best-performing reactors. By the end of that
decade, Ontario Hydro was recognized as
owning one of the world's largest and most
reliable fleets of nuclear power plants. (For
a more complete picture of Canada's energy
portfolio, see " Canada Moves to Rebalance
Its Energy Portfolio " in our June 2009 issue.)
In the mid-1990s, Ontario Hydro, thenowner
of the Bruce stations, was grappling
with an unexpected situation: Overbuilding
had produced the largest capacity surplus in
its history. The business decision was made to
temporarily lay up the Bruce A units in order
46
1. Eight is enough. A 2,300-acre site accommodates the Bruce A (foreground) and B
(background) generating stations. Each station houses four CANDU reactors. All four units of
Bruce B (Units 5 through 8) and Units 3 and 4 of Bruce A are in commercial service. When
the Bruce A Unit 1 and 2 restart is completed in 2012, the entire site will produce 6,200 MW.
Courtesy: Bruce Power
to " concentrate resources on other initiatives. "
Bruce A Unit 2 was prematurely mothballed
in October 1995, in part because of damage
to its steam generators from a lead blanket left
inside during a 1986 outage. Unit 1 was subsequently
shuttered in October 1997, Unit 4 in
March 1998, and Unit 3 in April 1998.
A New Beginning for Nuclear
Power in Ontario
In 1999, as part of Canada's establishment of a
retail electricity market, Ontario Hydro (a crown
corporation) was dissolved into five private successor
companies, including Ontario Power
Generation (OPG), which would retain the
nuclear plant assets. In May 2001, Bruce Power
LP (Bruce Power) became Canada's first private
nuclear generating company and the licensed
operator of Bruce A and B through a long-term
lease with OPG. At the time of the lease, all four
units at Bruce A were mothballed.
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Bruce Power is a business partnership
consisting of Cameco Corp. (31.6%), TransCanada
Corp. (31.6%), BPC Generation Infrastructure
Trust (31.6%), the Power Workers
Union (4%), and The Society of Energy Professionals
(1.2%).
Setting the Stage for Bruce A's
Second Act
After assuming responsibility for Bruce A,
Bruce Power invested C$720 million to return
Units 3 and 4 to service. That project
was successfully completed in January 2004
and October 2003, respectively.
In October 2005, Bruce Power reached an
agreement with the Ontario Power Authority
(OPA) and launched a C$4.25 billion program
to refurbish and restart the other two
units at Bruce A. At that time, the two units
were in what is known as a defueled, guaranteed
shutdown state. As with the earlier Units
POWER | August 2010

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POWER August 2010

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