Bruce Power begins Unit 5 refurbishment outage

Bruce Power took Unit 5 off-line on Sunday, Nov. 1, to begin its Major Component Replacement (MCR) outage, the company said in a news release Monday.

The refurbishment is part of Bruce Power's Life-Extension Program at the Bruce site near Tiverton. The company said Unit 5 was taken off-line for its scheduled outage "safely and successfully."

Unit 5 marks the start of the second half of the privately funded MCR Project, which will renew Units 3 through 8, according to the release.

What the work involves

The MCR work will extend the operating life of each reactor by 30 to 35 years, Bruce Power said. Crews replace key reactor components, including 480 calandria tubes and fuel channels (pressure tubes), 960 feeder tubes and the steam generators.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's refurbishment schedule lists the Unit 5 outage as running from the third quarter of 2026 to the second quarter of 2029.

Where the other units stand

According to the release:

• Unit 6, the first MCR, was finished ahead of schedule and under cost in 2023, with $52 million delivered back to Ontario ratepayers.
• Unit 3 came back online in June, more than seven months ahead of schedule, returning about $150 million to ratepayers through the Independent Electricity System Operator.
• Unit 4's outage began in 2025 and is tracking ahead of the Unit 3 outage.
• Unit 7's MCR is scheduled to begin in 2028, and Unit 8's in 2030.

With Unit 5 under way, overlapping MCR outages will continue at the Bruce site until 2033, the company said. The province is also evaluating a second MCR for Units 1 and 2, which were refurbished and returned to service in 2012 after being laid up in the late 1990s, the release said.

Jobs and spending

Bruce Power said the program and site operations create and sustain 22,000 direct and indirect jobs a year and contribute about $4 billion in annual economic benefits across the province, particularly in Bruce, Grey and Huron counties. The company said 95 per cent of its total spending is in Canada.

"Our performance gets better with each MCR outage and we're committed to delivering these projects safely with high quality and on time to return reliable units to power Ontario forward," Bruce Power president and CEO Eric Chassard said in the release.

Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson called the start of the outage "another important milestone for Bruce Power's Life-Extension Program and for the thousands of skilled tradespeople, suppliers and businesses helping deliver this work," in the release.

Ontario Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce said in the release that extending the life of the unit "will deliver reliable, affordable electricity."