Major maintenance project at OPG’s Pickering Nuclear successfully completed
At a glance
- Inspection and maintenance of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station’s vacuum building successfully completed in November.
- Concrete structure a unique safety feature of CANDU stations.
- Drones, divers helped save time and costs for important outage.
Drones, divers, and submersibles helped complete rigorous inspections and testing of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station’s vacuum building, an important safety component, during a month-long outage.
The vacuum building – a cylindrical concrete structure standing more than 50 metres high – is a unique safety feature of CANDU stations like OPG’s Pickering Nuclear and Darlington Nuclear.
Maintained at negative atmospheric pressure, Pickering’s vacuum building is connected to all units through a 2,000-foot pressure relief duct. In the unlikely event of a steam release from Pickering’s reactor buildings, the vacuum building would suck any steam through the duct where it would be condensed and contained.
Outages to inspect and repair the vacuum building are conducted as part of the station’s operating licence requirements.
“Pickering Nuclear is back to providing the people of Ontario with 3,100 megawatts of clean, safe, and reliable power – about 14 per cent of the province’s power needs,” said Jon Franke, Senior Vice President of Pickering Nuclear. “The successful completion of this important work reflects our excellence in project management, innovative thinking, and our team’s dedication to ensuring Pickering continues to play a vital role for Ontario now and in the future.”
“Pickering Nuclear is back to providing the people of Ontario with 3,100 megawatts of clean, safe, and reliable power – about 14 per cent of the province’s power needs.”Jon Franke, Senior Vice President of Pickering Nuclear
The outage, which began Oct. 6 and wrapped up three days ahead of schedule on Nov. 5, was no small feat. It required significant planning, preparation, and a whole lot of innovation.
Each department at the plant had a hand in the work, including operations, maintenance, and OPG’s contract partners, with support from engineering, supply chain, radiation protection, and security.
While the units were offline, the project team took the opportunity to perform some maintenance to ensure future plant reliability.
To save time and costs, OPG’s Advanced Inspection and Maintenance (AIM) team were also called on to help.
The group deployed drones to inspect the interior of the cavernous concrete structure, providing a closer look while avoiding the need to construct expansive scaffolding. Meanwhile, AIM’s divers and submersibles helped inspect the building’s emergency water storage tank, saving time that would have been required to drain the tank and build scaffolding.
“This project required all hands on deck,” said Franke. “The commitment and dedication of everyone at the station helped ensure a safe, timely, and cost-effective outage.”
Pickering Nuclear is seeing some of its best performance in its history. Prior to the start of the outage, the station maintained all six units generating onto the grid continuously for 109 days, a reliability record that reflects the Pickering team’s dedication to providing reliable electricity to Ontario.
In September, the Province of Ontario supported plans to operate Pickering’s Units 5 to 8 up to September 2026, pending regulatory approvals. At the request of the Province, OPG is also reassessing the feasibility of refurbishing Pickering’s Units 5 to 8.
Pickering Units 1 and 4 will continue to operate until the end of 2024 as planned.
Operating Pickering Units 5 to 8 to September 2026 would ensure the province has reliable, clean, and low-cost energy to meet the demands of electrification, while reducing carbon emissions by 2.1 megatonnes in 2026. It would also increase North America’s supply of Cobalt-60, a medical isotope used in radiation therapy and medical equipment sterilization.
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