Ontario Construction News staff writer
The $12.8-billion project to refurbish the four CANDU reactors at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Pickering continues apace, with unit 2 expected to be back online in the second quarter of this year.
The project dates back to 2016 when the Ontario Power Generation (OPG), owner of the plant, got approval to begin the refurbishment work, which is projected to take until 2026 to complete. It’s anticipated that by the time it is completed, the project will have created up to 11,800 jobs for more than 180 companies across Ontario.
“Once fully refurbished, the reactors will continue to produce approximately 20 per cent of the province’s energy for at least another 30 years. It will also fully comply with current nuclear safety regulations and policies that have come into place since (the nuclear incident at) Fukushima,” says SNC-Lavalin, part of the joint venture working on the refurbishment.
“As stewards of CANDU technology we bring specialized knowledge of the nuclear reactors and are responsible for a range of services and tooling, as well as training and procurement of critical resources.”
Work on unit 3 is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of this year, and last until the third quarter of 2023. Unit 1 is scheduled for refurbishment the fourth quarter of 2021, with completion projected for the fourth quarter of 2024. Refurbishment of unit 4 is expected to begin the second quarter of 2023, and be finished by the second quarter of 2026.
Following the successful installation of feeder tubes in the Unit 2 reactor at Darlington, OPG and its project partners have now successfully completed new fuel load, another critical step toward restarting the unit as part of the refurbishment project.
“Successful execution of new fuel load was due to teamwork and detailed planning,” said Matthew Moore, OPG Section Manager, Fuel Handling Projects. “We had strong contingency plans for scenarios we expected to encounter, and these allowed the team to move forward efficiently when faced with any challenges.”
According to SNC-Lavalin, nuclear reactors go through a mid-life refurbishment to ensure they remain in good working order. The planning for the project began 1n 2010.
As well as the jobs being created, over the next 30 years the project is expected to add $89.9 billion to Ontario’s GDP, with 96 per cent of expenditures spent in Ontario.
“We’ve taken note of more than 3,500 lessons learned from the first unit’s refurbishment and have been incorporating them into our plans for Unit 3 and subsequent units, all towards ensuring the project remains on course,” said Jeff Richardson, Senior Vice President, Nuclear Projects.
Quick facts about Darlington:
- 3,512 megawatts of power generated
- 480 fuel channels per reactor
- 580 metres (the Turbine Hall is nearly six football fields long
- 20 per cent of Ontario’s electricity supply comes from Darlington