Second Pickering A reactor restart on target

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Restarting a second reactor at the Pickering A nuclear station remains on target to deliver power next fall at a cost of just under $1 billion, according to top officials of Ontario Power Generation Inc.

But acting chief executive Richard Dicerni cautioned the job is moving into the more complex phase of knitting together systems and equipment that have largely been installed, but not yet switched on.

"There are no gimme putts here," Dicerni told reporters recently after a tour of the site. "I'd love to declare victory, but there are a number of key deliverables that need to occur" before that happens.

OPG staff and contract workers are swarming through the massive plant on the lakeshore: The complex, housing the eight reactors of Pickering A and its sister station, Pickering B, stretches about 660 metres along the shoreline.

The company hasn't managed to make up for a slow start on the project, caused largely by trouble getting enough skilled workers on the job last summer.

But "there is very systematic progress being made across the board," and work is about 70 per cent completed, Dicerni said.

When Energy Minister Dwight Duncan gave OPG the go-ahead in July to restart a second mothballed reactor at Pickering, the company published a list of milestones that called for 50 per cent of construction work to be completed by Jan. 15.

But being at 70 per cent doesn't really mean the project is ahead of schedule, Dicerni said. The 50 per cent target was essentially the rock-bottom minimum amount of work that needed to be accomplished to keep it on the rails.

As it is, the project remains on the same track it was on three months ago when OPG last issued a progress update. At that point, the company increased the cost estimate about $75 million from the previous estimate of $900 million.