Nuclear industry faces critical decade: OPG

OPG Darlington refurbishment outlines a mid-life nuclear refit in Ontario, promising safety, on-time delivery, and fact-based budgets, with mock-up reactors, rigorous assessments, independent oversight, and phased schedules amid limited contractors and an aging workforce.

The good name of Ontario’s nuclear industry will be restored or tarnished by the task of refitting the province’s nuclear power plants, says the chief executive of Ontario Power Generation.

Tom Mitchell acknowledged in a recent speech that Ontario’s nuclear history includes massive cost over-runs and long delays – failures that eroded public trust.

But OPG has learned from its mistakes as it faces the daunting task of giving the Darlington nuclear facility a mid-life refit starting in 2015 under a life extension plan now in motion, Mitchell told the Ontario Energy Network.

“We’ll do it in a way that delivers real value to Ontario taxpayers,” Mitchell promised. “Safely. On time. And on a fact-based budget.”

Mitchell acknowledged that OPG and its predecessor Ontario Hydro have dropped the ball before. The disastrous refit of Unit 4 at the Pickering nuclear station cost the company’s top executives and board of directors their jobs.

But OPG learned from its mistakes, and this round of refurbishments will be different, Mitchell vowed. For example:

• OPG will build a mock-up of a Darlington reactor as the Darlington looks ahead to refurbishment, so workers can practice and perfect what they’ll have to do when they enter the reactor for real.

• OPG is doing a detailed assessment of the Darlington station, which also has an edge for a new nuclear plant in planning, so the scope of the work and condition of the plant will be well understood. That wasn’t the case at Pickering, where workers often were handed plans, then discovered that what existed in the plant didn’t conform to the diagrams in the plans.

• The company is also planning for the “inevitable challenges” of dealing with the unexpected, and managing risks.

Mitchell vowed that at the outset OPG will name the key executives involved in the project, along with their responsibilities, so they’ll be fully accountable.

It will also form an “independent oversight group” reporting to the board, he said, and the company will make regular progress reports to the public.

“We must hold ourselves accountable, and be held accountable,” he said.

While OPG grapples with Darlington, Bruce Power will be tackling the refurbishment of reactors at its Bruce station near Kincardine as Ontario looks to lead a nuclear renaissance in the sector today.

In a recent panel discussion, Bruce Power chief executive Duncan Hawthorne warned that the scale of the nuclear rebuild will be a “very significant challenge” for the company, with high stakes at Bruce Power given there are only so many contractors, workers and suppliers to go around.

“I don’t think we’ve got the capacity to work on two sites at the same time amid Ontario’s electricity challenge, so we’re going to have to phase that,” he told an industry audience.

“We’ll also have to think about skill set. I need a 10-year agreement with all the building trade unions so I can move people from site to site in a seamless way.”

The nuclear workforce is also aging. Hawthorne said he’d been impressed with some welding work at the Bruce and asked to speak to the tradesmen who had done it.

“The senior man was 70 years of age, and his apprentice was 64,” Hawthorne said.

Because Ontario’s nuclear plants supply half the province’s power, an entire station can’t be shut down for a refit, he said. Working on one reactor while its neighbour is operating full tilt adds complexity, he said:

“It’s sort of like running a marathon, and changing our shoes while we go.”

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