ES Fox's integrated approach key to supporting OPG nuclear projects

Multi-trade company E.S. Fox Limited has been supporting Ontario Power Generation’s nuclear projects for over 30 years. The Canadian company attributes their integrated approach as central to the success of this long-standing relationship.

“We set up a structure and a well-rounded team on site to support OPG’s processes and procedures,” said Jessica King, Project Management Office Director at E.S. Fox. “In a way, we mirrored OPG’s project teams to make support more efficient.”

​With over 300 workers supporting projects at OPG’s Pickering and Darlington nuclear power plants, E.S. Fox’s wide-ranging integration has enabled their personnel to interact more readily with OPG’s, which King says has encouraged open communication and resulted in more timely resolutions.

Established in 1934, E.S. Fox is headquartered in Niagara Falls and maintains full-service regional offices across the province, including in Port Robinson where the company is fabricating thermal insulation cabinets for OPG’s Darlington Refurbishment project.

These cabinets will protect the refurbished reactor vault’s concrete walls and feeder header frames from excess temperatures and will reduce the load on the reactor vault cooling system. E.S. Fox is supplying the cabinets in two orders: 654 carbon steel support frames and 3,792 stainless steel panels.

“We’ve expanded our services to support OPG, particularly for the Darlington Refurbishment,” said King. “Being part of the project has helped us set ourselves up for future demand.”

Aside from the Darlington Refurbishment project, E.S. Fox has been supporting OPG’s Pickering Nuclear station on a number of critical initiatives, helping to ensure the power plant continues operating safely and reliably until 2024. Some of these initiatives include the replacement of stack monitors and obsolete online chemistry analyzers.

The varied and complex nature of these OPG projects requires E.S. Fox to build on the interconnected approach they’ve developed with OPG.

“We place a great deal of value on relationship building and aligned processes that enables us to better serve our clients,” said King. “Setting up embedded teams and systems at the station, working with other nuclear organizations and sharing lessons learned — all of this goes toward helping us better meet our clients’ needs and that of the nuclear industry.”