NB Power has received permission from the Canadian nuclear regulator to load fuel into the refurbished single-unit Point Lepreau plant in New Brunswick.
The Point Lepreau plant is a 680 MW Candu 6 pressurized heavy-water plant, which started commercial operation in 1983. A major outage being necessary to extend its lifespan up to 30 years, the reactor was taken off line in March 2008 to replace all 380 fuel channels, calandria tubes and feeder tubes. The C$1.4bn ($1.4bn) retrofit, which was expected to last 16 months, was further extended by the need to remove and replace all the calandria tubes for a second time after problems with seal tightness.
The refurbishment was completed in early March 2012. Fuel loading is scheduled to start before the end of March 2012. Then, NB Power will require further CNSC approvals to bring the reactor back online. Point Lepreau plant is expected to start again in the second half of 2012.
The second unit of the Bruce A plant (CANDU) in Ontario was also authorised to restart after refurbishment in March 2012. The refurbishment process of the first unit of this plant should be completed soon.
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