[cdn-nucl-l] CANDU Rehab: can someone tell me why?

Large-scale retube was a first carried out on the four Pickering A reactors in the 1980s when a pressure tube cracked due to the movement of the garter springs. At first, the retube process was slow and difficult (~2 years for the first reactor). The subsequent units were done progressively faster (~8 months for the fourth reactor?). It was all very affordable.

Retube of a CANDU 6 after 30 years of service has new issues and a few technical surprises, which are being overcome. The Bruce A retube manager suggested at the recent CNS Conference in Calgary that it could be less costly to cut a large whole in the containment building and replace the entire reactor assembly as a module, instead of retubing it.

As for Lepreau, it is undergoing more than reactor retube. There is a regulatory standard for reactor life extension that requires a condition assessment, plus new safety analyses to current regulatory standards, plus refurbishments and safety upgrades. It goes on and on.

You have to study the whole life extension process carefully to understand "why".

I recall Pogo's famous message well: "We have seen the enemy, and he is us!"
An alternative is to decommission the plant and build a new plant or import power from elsewhere.

I agree that we need to change what we are doing.

From: Andrew Daley <daley.andrew@gmail.com>
To: Nuclear <cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA>
Sent: Friday, September 4, 2009 2:09:53 PM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] can someone tell me why?

Delays are usually present in any large construction project... I understand that.

But 9 months?? That is 50% "extra" on the orginally projected total!!!

That:

a) is not acceptable.

b) does not bode well for justification of anyone else considering refurbishment

c) places immense pressure on the "renaissance"... I wouldn't be surpised if this kills any talk of "Lepreau 2" and you can bet AECL's performance here definitly counts in Ontario's deliberations.

Does anyone here have publically releasable knowledge of what is causing these delays? As a UNB student I weas a very voal supporter of refurbishment of lepreau... but 9 months behind? I can already hear the "I told you so's"... I certainly hope there is a logical and valid reason why these delays have happened... can someone please enlighten me?

The Canadian Press - Broadcast News
NB-Lepreau
Thu Sep 3 2009

SAINT JOHN, N.B. - New Brunswick's energy minister wants an answer from NB Power and Atomic Energy of Canada on how long it will take to complete the 1.4 billion dollar refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear plant.

Jack Keir says he expects that update soon.

He says the last estimate he received put the project at seven-and-a-half months behind schedule.

However, a CBC report, citing unnamed sources at NB Power says the refurbishment is now nine months behind.

Utility spokeswoman Heather MacLean says there's been no discussion of the time frame and she doesn't know where the nine month figure comes from.

She says NB Power won't be in a position to recalculate how far behind the project is until Atomic Energy has finished inspecting the reactor vessel.

NB Power is on the hook for almost one million dollars for each day the project is overdue.

The refurbishment was originally scheduled to take 18 months and bring Atlantic Canada's only nuclear reactor back into service by next month.