Darlington Refurb Project News
April 14, 2019
2 min read

Major milestones in sight for the Darlington Refurbishment Project

More than two years after OPG and its project partners began the Darlington Refurbishment project, Unit 2 remains on track for completion early next year.

Since the reactor’s successful disassembly last spring, the project team has been putting the unit back together through a complex series of work that includes installing hundreds of calandria tubes, fuel channels and feeder tubes.

Workers at a GE plant in Poland prepare a massive generator stator for shipment to Darlington Nuclear.
Workers at a GE plant in Poland prepare a massive generator stator for shipment to Darlington Nuclear.

This reassembly phase is scheduled for completion this spring. The focus will then shift to returning the unit to commercial service and full power operation by February 2020. At the same time, OPG is making the final preparations for the start of Unit 3’s refurbishment.

​“We’ve entered a critical phase on the project,” said Mike Allen, Senior Vice President of Nuclear Refurbishment. “OPG and our project partners continue to work as an integrated team to meet our commitments on Unit 2 and our other three reactors at Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.”

Also this spring, OPG will receive a special delivery, on time for another major milestone.

A 350-tonne generator stator, a component that converts a rotating magnetic field into electric current, is on its way by train and ship from Poland where it was manufactured by General Electric (GE), one of OPG’s project partners.

The massive part will be installed in the Unit 3 turbine hall.

“Working with project partners with key industry expertise is vital to the success of OPG’s Darlington Refurbishment project. GE’s delivery of the stator this spring will mark the successful completion of another milestone on the project.”
Dietmar Reiner, Senior Vice President of Nuclear Projects

The Darlington Refurbishment project is a 10-year undertaking that will generate at least 30 more years of clean, low-cost and reliable energy for Ontario.

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