Bruce Power's Unit 3 Major Component Replacement (MCR) outage is moving to the next stage.
Following months of planning, workers are now poised to remove and replace critical components, including 480 fuel channels, 960 feeder tubes, and eight steam generators.
Workers have added protective shielding and 16 bulkheads to isolate Unit 3 from Bruce A's working units. Bruce Power stated Unit 3 will be able to supply increased demand for clean energy for decades to come.
“Building on the successes of the recently completed Unit 6 MCR outage, our Unit 3 MCR outage continues to leverage innovation and improvements from MCR6,” said Eric Chassard, Bruce Power Executive Vice-President, Projects and Engineering. “Shoreline Power Group will now commence work in the vault and will leverage its experience and expertise to complete this work with safety, innovation and quality.”
Shoreline hired about 500 tradespeople recently to complete the project. Workers are now training to use the robotic tooling from ATS Automation at the MCR Training Facility in Kincardine. The equipment will be used to replace reactor components.
Shoreline also has the contract for Bruce Power’s remaining MCR projects in Units 4, 5, 7, and 8. It completed the Unit Six MCR project ahead of schedule, the first unit completed in the project. Shoreline is a joint venture between Aecon, AtkinsRéalis and United Engineers and Constructors.
“Shoreline is committed to partnering with Bruce Power to deliver each MCR outage more efficiently than the previous by leveraging our experience and innovation,” said Jean-Louis Servranckx, President and CEO of Aecon on behalf of Shoreline Power Group. “Ontario’s nuclear industry and skilled tradespeople are delivering refurbishment projects safely, on time, with quality and on budget and returning these units to service to power Ontario’s clean energy future.”
The privately funded MCR Project is expected to wrap up in 2033, to extend the life of the site through 2064. Bruce Power said the Life-Extension Program, Project 2030, is expected to produce more than 7,000 Megawatts of clean power following the completion of the MCR Project.