Ontario to announce refurbishment of 4 reactors at Pickering Plant
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MATTHEW MCCLEARN, JEFF GRAY, QUEEN’S PARK REPORTER, TORONTO, 30 Jan 24,
Ontario is continuing with a large, multibillion-dollar refurbishment of 4 growing older nuclear reactors at its Pickering energy plant east of Toronto, based on two provincial authorities sources.
The choice will likely be formally unveiled by Ontario Vitality Minister Todd Smith on the facility in Pickering on Tuesday, a senior authorities supply stated. This could mark the federal government’s newest main transfer to protect and broaden the province’s reactor fleet.
One other authorities official stated the province has authorized a $2-billion finances for Ontario Energy Era, the plant’s proprietor, to finish the mandatory engineering and design work and order essential parts, which might require years to fabricate. The Globe and Mail shouldn’t be naming the sources, as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly concerning the determination.
No full value estimate for the venture has been revealed. Refurbishments underneath method at OPG’s Darlington nuclear plant in Clarington, and at Bruce Energy’s station in Tiverton, have value between $2-billion and greater than $3-billion a reactor.
Mr. Smith’s announcement had been anticipated. In 2022, the province requested OPG to check the feasibility of refurbishing the 4 Pickering “B” models, which entered service within the mid-Nineteen Eighties and had beforehand been handed over for refurbishment 15 years in the past. Mr. Smith acquired OPG’s report final summer time, however his ministry rebuffed a request from this newspaper to launch it underthe province’s freedom of knowledge laws.
The Pickering station, located on the shore of Lake Ontario about 30 kilometres from downtown Toronto, generates about 15 per cent of Ontario’s energy. It additionally consists of the 4 Nineteen Seventies-era Pickering “A” reactors, which aren’t at the moment being thought-about for refurbishment. Two have been dormant for many years after an aborted refurbishment, and the remaining two are scheduled to close down completely this 12 months.
OPG’s present licence for Pickering B permits its reactors to function solely to the top of this 12 months. OPG has utilized to the Canadian Nuclear Security Fee, which regulates the business, for permission to function them till late 2026. CNSC approval would even be required for a refurbishment.
Refurbishment includes changing main parts to increase reactors’ working lives by 30 years, though the checklist of required upgrades varies from station to station. Subo Sinnathamby, OPG’s chief initiatives officer, advised The Globe earlier this month that, if the venture have been authorized, OPG would start Pickering’s refurbishment in 2028, with the aim of returning its reactors to service by the mid-2030s. Earlier refurbishments have unfolded over longer durations.
“It’s a compressed timeline,” she acknowledged. However she added that this time OPG will profit from the expertise it and its contractors and suppliers gained throughout earlier refurbishments.
January 31, 2024 –
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Canada, security
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