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Consortium chosen for Bruce retubing

Friday, 15 June 2018

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Bruce Power has awarded a CAD475 million (USD361 million) contract for the retubing of Bruce 6 - one of the key contracts for its Major Component Replacement (MCR) project - to the Shoreline Power Group, a consortium of Aecon, AECOM and SNC-Lavalin. The joint venture has also signed a Preferred Supplier Agreement under which it could be awarded similar contracts for five further Bruce units.

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Celebrating the announcement yesterday, from left to right: Lisa Thompson, member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP); Art Lembo, AECOM; Sandy Taylor, SNC-Lavalin; Mike Rencheck, Bruce Power; John Beck, Aecon; Mike Harris, former premier of Ontario; and Bill Walker, MPP. (Image: Bruce Power)

The scope of work covered by the contract includes planning and carrying out the removal and replacement of calandria tubes, pressure tubes and feeders for Bruce unit 6. The joint venture will also be responsible for the management of the complex robotic tooling required for the work, along with full training of the workforce. The consortium has already begun to mobilise for the retube, which is scheduled to begin in 2020 for completion in the third quarter of 2022.

MCRs are to be carried out at Bruce units 3-8 as part of Bruce Power's Life Extension Programme, which will enable the Bruce A and B nuclear power plants to operate until 2064. Units 1 and 2 at Bruce A have already been refurbished. Extension of Shoreline Power's contract to the other five Candu units, which are scheduled to be refurbished over the next 16 years, would depend on demonstrated success at unit 6.

"As Canada's largest public-private partnership, Bruce Power will continue to meet all investment requirements related to this multi-year programme, and, through continued strong and efficient performance, will provide low-cost power to the province through 2064," Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck said yesterday. "We are making this key contract award today with the confidence that the members of the Shoreline Power Group have demonstrated the experience, commitment and dedication to safety, quality, productivity and innovation to enable us to keep our Life Extension Programme on time and on budget."

Canadian construction and infrastructure company Aecon and US-based engineering company AECOM are already involved in the removal and replacement of Bruce 6's eight steam generators through a joint venture with Areva NP under a contract worth CAD150 million. The replacement steam generators are being manufactured by BWXT Canada Ltd, under a contract worth CAD100 million announced in 2016.

Bruce Power in October 2016 signed a framework agreement with SNC-Lavalin in preparation fo the refurbishment programme. The Canada-based company has carried out Candu reactor refurbishments worldwide, and Sandy Taylor, the company's president, said the company would use its "deep knowledge base and decades of Candu experience to confidently fulfil the refurbishment needs".

Mike Harris, who was premier of Ontario at the time of Bruce Power's formation as a public-private partnership in 2001, attended the announcement of the contract. "It wasn't that long ago that the Bruce site was a facility with only half of its units operating with an end of life in 2018," Harris said yesterday. "In fact, without the transformation Bruce Power has undertaken since 2001, we would be standing today at a facility with all of its units shut down. I'm pleased that, through the public-private partnership between the province and Bruce Power, we have a very different future today. All eight units are generating low-cost power for families and business, and this private-sector investment programme will allow the company to do this for many decades to come."

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News