Bruce Power and the provincial government have agreed on a plan to refurbish its entire nuclear fleet.
The agreement will see six reactors at the Bruce site refurbished, starting in 2020 with the Unit 6 reactor, with reactors coming offline roughly every two years, with all refurbishment work scheduled to be wrapped up by 2033.
The refurbishment work is expected to extend the life of each reactor by at least 30 years.
President and CEO Duncan Hawthorne says the $13-billion cost will be entirely invested by Bruce Power, pointing out the company is also assuming all risk for any cost overruns that might occur.
Hawthorne says the company is confident they can complete the refurbishments on-time and on-budget, even though past refurbishments of units 1 and 2 ran $2-billion over budget and were completed about three years behind schedule.
He says these refurbishments will be different, pointing out Units 1 and 2 had sat in mothballs for over a decade and there will be fewer unknowns with the knowledge gained through the first refurbishments.
"Last time, we were taking on a lot of first-of-a-kind stuff and we achieved it, but perhaps with a degree of misplaced optimism in terms of how long it would take us. This time, we've done it all before, we've seen it before and we already have confidence on how long things will take and how much they'll cost," says Hawthorne.
The local economy will see a sustained boost with the influx of workers coming to the area to complete the refurbishments, which Hawthorne predicts will create nearly two-decades of enhanced prosperity, similar to what the local communities experienced during the Units 1 and 2 refurbishments.
"Really what this deal will do will bring back that workforce and effectively have them stay, I think it's 18 years, with very little modulation in it," says Hawthorne.
Meanwhile, residents of Bruce, Grey and Huron will be able to discuss today’s refurbishment announcement with Bruce Power's CEO.
Duncan Hawthorne is holding a telephone town hall meeting Thursday at 7pm. Residents will receive a phone call and participants can choose to be part of the teleconference.
“This telephone town hall is a great way for me to provide more information on the highlights of the long-term agreement we have signed with the Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO), and outline what it means for the future of the Bruce Power site,” says Hawthorne.
Residents can also take part in the call at 1-877-519-6647 and use PIN code 641043.
