Shining the spotlight on OPG’s women in the trades

At OPG, we celebrate all the achievements and contributions of our diverse workforce.

As the company continues on its journey toward equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) excellence, as outlined in its ED&I strategy, we highlight some of the talented women working at our Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.

These four women are building their career in the skilled trades while helping to complete one of Canada’s largest clean energy projects, the Darlington Refurbishment, and advance the production of critical medical isotopes.

Sundeep and Suveen Thandi are twin sisters and red seal-certified welders who are flourishing in their roles on the Darlington Refurbishment project.

Since graduating from Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s welding program in British Columbia, the sisters have both worked on various exciting projects across Canada. With these experiences, Sundeep and Suveen set their eyes on working in the nuclear industry, which they felt offered the highest standards of safety and the most opportunities for personal development.

Beginning as welders on the Unit 3 Auxiliary Shutdown Cooling (ASDC) pump project team, their contributions drove the project to the finish line, on time and on budget. This project involved installing two shutdown cooling pumps into the Unit 3 reactor to act as a safety measure for the station. Sundeep and Suveen worked alongside pipefitters to oversee a series of important welds to connect new pipes to existing pumps on the water-cooling system.

Since completing this project, Sundeep is working as a welder for the Unit 1 ASDC pump project and Suveen has been promoted to weld supervisor.

What’s the best part of your workday?

“The unique challenges and team dynamics are what make work exciting every day,” said Suveen.

What do you like most about your career in the trades?

“I strongly recommend any female to look into the skilled trades, as I personally find it both mentally and physically rewarding,” said Sundeep.

Samantha (Sami) Jewer and Madison Kimmerer are millwrights with OPG vendor E.S. Fox who worked on the recent Unit 2 outage at Darlington Nuclear. Unit 2 came offline in early November 2022 to install tooling that enables the delivery of Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) isotope targets into Unit 2’s reactor for irradiation.

Before working on the Unit 2 outage, Sami was onboarded through OPG’s Indigenous Opportunities in Nuclear (ION) program. She has previous experience working on the Cobalt-60 isotopes harvest at Pickering in 2019 and the installation of Darlington’s third Emergency Power Generator in 2017. She has since completed her two-year millwright apprenticeship and credits the ION program with helping her land her current role supporting the harvest of Cobalt-60 isotopes at Darlington.

Did you receive any support or mentorship to help guide the trajectory of your career?

“Absolutely. I have completed a lot of training opportunities through the union hall and OPG – and there are lots of opportunities to get into management and supervision roles. The ION program also offered an introduction to millwrighting course. It was great to expose us to the trades and helped me get the job I have now at E.S. Fox,” shared Sami.

Similar to Sami, Madison graduated from the Industrial Millwright Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program at Durham College and is now completing a Steel Trades Expanding Opportunities Network (STEON) apprenticeship. After supporting the Unit 2 outage, Madison is now supporting Mo-99 commissioning and will later join Sami on the Cobalt-60 harvest.

What advice would you give other women pursuing a career in the trades?

“I tell all the girls to get into the trades now! This job has built my confidence so much and helped me to be less shy. It is not as scary as people may think – I haven’t had any bad experiences and I feel treated as an equal,” said Madison.

Sami added that “there is never a dull moment and always something new to learn.”