Milestones for Canada's Bruce Power units

Monday, 24 February 2025

Bruce 3's steam generators are being replaced as part of the company's Life-Extension Program and Major Component Replacement - or MCR - Project. Over the past six months, Bruce Power has worked with the Steam Generator Replacement Team (SGRT) joint venture of Aecon and SGT (a partnership between Framatome Canada Ltd and United Canadian Operations Ltd) to carry out the process. First, the 300-tonne steam drums which sit above the steam generators had to be moved out of the way on a track system and set aside for inspection and maintenance. The original steam generators - which weigh 100 tonnes each - were then lifted out through the roof, and the new ones lifted back in using Mammoet's PTC-35 crane, which stands more than 100 metres high.

_{The PTC-35 crane in action at Bruce (Image: Mammoet/X)}

"This was a huge undertaking that required more than a year-and-a-half of planning just to get to the execution phase, which was delivered safely and successfully through a high degree of collaboration," Bruce Power’s Vice-President of MCR Execution Rob Hoare said.

Bruce 3 was taken offline to begin its MCR outage in March 2023. It is the second of six units at the Bruce site which will undergo the process, which involves removing and replacing key reactor components including steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes and adding 30-35 years to the reactor's operating life.

The new steam generators were manufactured by BWXT around 20 years ago and have been stored on the Bruce Power site, the company said.

Radioisotope record

Separately, Bruce Power announced it had completed its celebrated its largest-ever harvest of cobalt-60 during a planned outage at Bruce unit 5 during which upgrades will also be carried out to allow an increase in the production of cobalt -60 and High Specific Activity (HSA) cobalt-60. Cobalt-60 is used to sterilise around 40% of the world's single-use medical devices, including syringes, catheters, IV sets, surgical gloves and gauze used in a wide range of health care applications. HSA cobalt-60 is a medical-grade radioisotope used in the treatment of brain tumours and breast cancer through non-invasive procedures.

"The production of these potentially life-saving medical isotopes is a beacon of hope that is provided by our nuclear industry," Bruce Power Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President and Chair of the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council James Scongack said.