Bruce Power’s Unit 6 Major Component Replacement (MCR) reached another important milestone when the final of eight steam generators was lifted into place on December 18, safely and event-free.
“These new steam generators will be in service for many decades providing clean, reliable power to Ontario homes and businesses,” said Eric Chassard, Bruce Power’s Executive Vice President, Projects & Engineering. “This is a culmination of many years of hard work and collaboration between Bruce Power and our partners like SGRT, BWXT, Mammoet, Nuvia and the Building Trades Unions.”
“Bruce Power’s ‘Made in Ontario’ nuclear supply chain supports Canada’s largest private infrastructure and clean energy project, which injects billions into Ontario’s economy and creates and sustains 22,000 high-skilled jobs annually.”
Unit 6 contains eight steam generators which are arranged vertically in two columns of four on the east and west side of the reactor. Each steam generator weighs approximately 320,000 pounds and was lifted through the powerhouse roof enclosure using Mammoet’s PTC-35 crane. This 1,600-ton capacity crane is one of the largest in the world and features a boom the length of a hockey rink that can stretch over the station, which is seven storeys tall, and reach the inner-most steam generators.
The new steam generators were fabricated at BWXT in Cambridge and shipped to site in late 2020. Laser topography was conducted on the steam generators to transform them into a 3D layout to verify dimensions prior to the first lift. These were set in place by Building Trades within a few millimeters tolerance.
The Steam Generator Replacement Team (SGRT), a 50/50 joint venture between Aecon and SGT (a partnership between Framatome and United Engineers & Constructors), is Bruce Power’s vendor responsible for replacing the Unit 6 steam generators and was recently awarded a contract for the same scope on Units 3 and 4.
Feature image: (Bruce Power)
