Rebuild of Darlington Nuclear's Unit 2 now underway

The reassembly of the Unit 2 reactor at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (GS) is now underway nearly two years after OPG and its project partners began the Darlington Refurbishment.

“We’re now past the half-way mark on our Unit 2 refurbishment schedule,” said Dietmar Reiner, OPG’s Senior Vice President of Nuclear Projects. “We’ve completed all the work necessary to take the reactor apart and have started rebuilding it with new and refurbished components, all of which are being cleaned and inspected prior to installation.”

​Staff are now busy installing 480 new calandria tubes, which provide passage through the reactor’s tank, or calandria vessel, for the fuel channel assemblies. The project team is also refurbishing the steam turbines, which turn the generator to make electricity. For the first time in Darlington’s history, the turbine blades were removed and inspected then carefully hoisted back into place.

While refurbishment on Unit 2 progresses, planning is underway for the Unit 3 overhaul. Nu-Tech Precision Metals, a metal extrusion company located in Arnprior, Ont., has completed production of all 480 pressure tubes for Unit 3 and has already started shipping them to Darlington Nuclear.

“We’re now at a critical point on the project,” said Reiner. “With more than 96 cents of every dollar spent here in Ontario, our suppliers are meeting their commitment to deliver precision high quality parts on time and on budget.”

Refurbishment of Unit 2 is scheduled for completion in 2019, with all four units at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station refurbished by 2026.