POWER November 2013 - 24

TOP PLANTS
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station,
Kincardine, Ontario, Canada
Owner/operator: Bruce Power
Courtesy: Bruce Power
Bringing four units back online and extending the life of four sister units has made
the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station the largest operating nuclear plant in the
world. The investments to bring the plant back to full power have also helped enable
the province's phase-out of all coal generation.
James M. Hylko
A
ccording to Duncan Hawthorne,
president and CEO of Bruce Power,
2012 was one of the most successful
years in the company's history. The $7 billion
investment to revitalize four dormant
CANDU Bruce A units (1 through 4) while
extending the operating life of the four
Bruce B units (5 through 8) made it the largest
operating nuclear power facility in the
world. The current 6,300-MW capacity supplies
one-quarter of Ontario's electricity and
provides enough replacement power for the
province to achieve its goal of shuttering all
coal-fired plants by 2014.
For successfully completing numerous
first-of-a-kind engineering accomplishments
through innovation, transforming its workforce
through new hiring and training, and
positioning the site for long-term stability to
achieve the province's environmental goals,
Bruce Generating Station is recognized as a
2013 POWER Top Plant.
The Home Stretch: Units 1 and 2
Refurbishment
Bruce Power is a business partnership consisting
of Cameco Corp., Trans-Canada
24
Corp., BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust,
the Power Workers Union, and the Society
of Energy Professionals. When Bruce Power
took over the plant site on Lake Huron in
May 2001, only half of the eight CANDU
reactors were generating electricity. After returning
Units 3 and 4 to service in 2004 and
2003, respectively, the company pursued full
refurbishment and recommissioning of Units
1 and 2 in October 2005-an effort that was
ranked as one of the 100 biggest infrastructure
projects in Canada. In the August 2010
issue, POWER reported on this ambitious
restart project ( " Bruce A Proves There Are
Second Acts in Nuclear Power " ), as both
units had been out of service for over a decade
and a half.
After Bruce A was laid up in the 1990s, fossil
generation increased from 12% in 1995 to
29% in 2000. In the past 10 years, with the
return of Bruce A units, coal use has dropped
by 90% and will be phased out entirely next
year. Consequently, since 2005, summer smog
days in the Greater Toronto Area have fallen
from 45 to 12. (For more on the province's
coal phase-out, see the May 2013 cover story,
" Ontario Goes Coal-Free in a Decade. " )
www.powermag.com
The multibillion dollar project to restore
Units 1 and 2 to service involved numerous
contractors involved with the installation,
replacement, or overhaul of several components
(Table 1). Details on some of the projects
and specific accomplishments follow.
Fuel Channel and Calandria Tube Replacement.
The " detube-retube " project
for both units was deemed critical path and
set the pace for the restart project. Firstof-a-kind
remote-controlled tooling was
deployed to cut out the original components,
which were radioactive from years
of service. The new components were
installed manually by workers inside the
reactor vaults. These fuel channel assemblies,
approximately 12 meters long from
end-to-end, hold the reactor's uranium fuel
bundles during operation. Twelve bundles
are inserted into each channel for a total of
5,760 bundles. Horizontal calandria tubes
house the center section, the pressure tube
portion of the fuel channel assembly. After
much preparation, work to replace 480
fuel channel assemblies and 480 calandria
tubes for both units was declared complete
in April 2011.
POWER | November 2013
http://www.powermag.com
POWER November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER November 2013
