The opening of a training facility signals an important step in mobilising Bruce Power's Major Component Replacement (MCR) project, the Canadian company has announced. The work is due to begin at Bruce unit 6 early next year.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by (L-R): Mike Rencheck; Kincardine Mayor Anne Eadie; Minister of Government and Consumer Services Bill Walker; Bruce Power Vice President, Major Projects Jeff Phelps; Minister of Education Lisa Thompson; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities David Piccini; and Bruce Chairman Don Wishart.

The new MCR Training Facility, located in the municipality of Kincardine, is part of the Bruce Power Life-Extension Program, which started in January 2016 and will allow Bruce Power's eight Candu units to operate safely through to 2064. The new facility will give skilled tradespeople the opportunity to practise executing the highly technical MCR programmes. It features a two-storey office area; classrooms and amenities for the occupants; a one-storey, high-bay workshop area to host training; with facilities for about 500 employees.

Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck said: "By providing hands-on, in-depth training to the people executing these highly technical programmes, we expect our Unit 6 MCR to remain on time and on budget, while seeing incremental improvements in time and budget as we progress onto other units."

Unit 6 will be the first of six units to undergo MCR over a period of 13 years. Each MCR will take 46 months to complete and give the unit a further 30-35 years of operational life. The total cost of refurbishing Bruce units 3-8 is estimated at about CAD8 billion, in addition to CAD5 billion on other activities under the life-extension programme. Units 1 and 2 have already been refurbished.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News