Generating station reconnects to the New Brunswick grid

Nuclear Planned Maintenance Outage details scheduled shutdowns for inspection, testing, and start-up sequencing, including transformer work, to ensure safe, reliable operation and timely return to service for New Brunswick power customers.

The Point Lepreau Generating Station is once again connected to the New Brunswick grid following completion of a planned maintenance outage that began on May 3, 2014. The Station is currently at 77 percent reactor power as it monitors equipment performance on the way to full power expected in the next 48 hours.

During this outage workers performed a wide variety of maintenance and inspection activities on both the nuclear and conventional sides of the plant, including safety upgrades across key systems.

"We are very happy to be operating again back online and delivering power to New Brunswickers," said Sean Granville, Site Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer. "This was our first large scale planned maintenance outage since resuming full operations at the Station in 2012. Outages such as this are necessary to continue reliable, safe operation, especially given past fuel tube problems experienced at the Station, and to properly preserve this valuable generating asset for the future."

During this outage, staff identified an opportunity to perform work on the Station transformers, which triggered an extension of the outage to accommodate inspections. The planned maintenance outage process also has a large number of testing and inspection requirements during Station start up activities, many of which must be performed in sequence. The sequential nature of the process can often lead to additional time being required to return to service, as seen with radioactive tube removal during past refurbishment work.

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