Bruce 4 defuelled in record time
The unit's 5,761 fuel bundles were removed in just 24 days, making it the most efficient Candu reactor defuel ever, according to Bruce Power.
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Bruce unit 4 began its Major Component Replacement - or MCR - outage earlier this month. It is the third of six units at the Bruce site in Ontario to undergo MCR, which involves removing and replacing key reactor components including steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes, adding 30-35 years to the reactor's operating life.
The first unit to undergo MCR, Bruce unit 6, took 46 days to complete defueling, and the second - Bruce unit 3 - took 29 days. Each successive MCR has leveraged innovation and lessons learned from the previous projects, said Bruce A Plant Manager Lucas Van Wieringen. "Our private investments in state-of-the-art innovative modifications to improve safety and efficiency of our defuel campaign set our teams up for success," he said. "Our continued focus on proficiency of our workforce and a high-quality schedule through planning and preparation will enable us to continue to build momentum in our Life-Extension Program."
The next major milestone for the Bruce 4 MCR project is the chemical decontamination of the Primary Heat Transport (PHT) system prior to the start of construction activity, which begins with major component disassembly. Lessons learned from the first MCR outage at Bruce 6 led to the development of an innovative approach, with chemical decontamination of the PHT system at low level drain state, before the start of work at Bruce 3. This innovation, which reduces dose rates, will also be applied in unit 4.
The renewed unit will be loaded with new fuel bundles ahead of its restart in 2027.
Bruce Power will see overlapping MCR outages until 2033 in a CAD13 billion (USD9 billion) refurbishment that is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Canada.
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