Bruce Power’s Unit 6 Major Component Replacement Project is moving on to the next step.
That will involve the Fuel Channel Feeder Replacement program, and involves the removal and replacement of the major components such as pressure tubes, calandria tubes, and feeders inside the reactor. The first group of trade workers from Shoreline was deployed into the Unit 6 reactor vault last week to execute work that had been moved up in the schedule.
In order to get to that stage, workers had to completed the preparations by installing protective shielding and 16 bulkheads, weighing over seven tons each, to isolate Unit 6 from the operating units.
“Reaching this milestone on plan under difficult conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic marks a pivotal moment in MCR,” said Eric Chassard, Bruce Power’s Executive Vice-President, Projects & Engineering.
Shoreline, a joint venture comprised of Aecon, SNC-Lavalin and AECOM, will start the Fuel Channel Feeder Replacement program. Approximately 400 tradespeople have been hired by Shoreline over the past two months, while ATS Automation has delivered the robotic tooling, which will be used to replace components, to the MCR Training Facility in Kincardine, where workers have been preparing and training.
The Unit 6 MCR began in January before being put on hold during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project resumed in late spring with strict precautionary measures being instituted to keep workers and contractors safe. Bruce Power has expanded its safety protocols around the public health crisis, recently putting into place testing and screening of select company and supplemental staff, and contractors.
It's estimated the MCR project will inject $4 billion into Ontario’s economy while creating an additional 5,000 jobs across the province each year.
