Ontario Nuclear Update - September 8th, 2023

[OVERKILL]

Bruce Power Unit 6 has synchronized to the grid and rapidly ramped up to 235MW. It is currently limited by the 35% full power regulatory hold from the CNSC. Once this hold is removed, power output will increase.

This marks the completion of the refurbishment of the first Bruce B unit. It was completed ahead of schedule and on budget.

Here's a photo of when it went down:

It will be very interesting to see if this is the first unit allowed to run up to 100% full power. As I've noted in previous posts, all the Bruce units are limited in thermal output and not allowed to go to 100% FP. Bruce has been working with Cameco (their fuel provider) to try and remedy this, as it's the result of the PHT circuit being a single loop rather than 2-loop like at Pickering or Darlington.

Bruce is the most productive power plant in North America, producing up to 49TWh/year, which is more than consumed by the country of Denmark and enough to power a country the size of Portugal.

When the uprate work is complete, and the FP hold eliminated, the plant should produce ~55TWh from its 8 units.

As noted in the previous thread, development work on Bruce C is now underway, adding up to 4,800MW to a site that will be >7,000MW post refurbishment. This will make it the largest thermal power plant in the world once again (Korea currently operates one with a higher nameplate capacity) and will allow Bruce to provide up to 50% of Ontario's electricity from this one site.

 

[I<3oil]

Gah, that's awesome

 

[walterjay]

Excellent. Now if we could just get that type of thing moving in the US.

 

[MVAR]

Single shaft HP/IP/LP unit. We had a couple small 155mw GE single shaft units at MBPP along with a couple larger 360mw dual shaft cross compound Westinghouse units. All were NG boilers though & not nuclear.

Have to say that I MUCH prefer dispatching units now than working in the plants lol.

Good job Canada for continuing to support nuclear generation. Maybe, but likely not, our policy makers down here can learn a few things and begin implementing sane regulation again.

 

[KrisZ]

This marks the completion of the refurbishment of the first Bruce B unit. It was completed ahead of schedule and on budget.

To me this is the biggest take away from this. Things can be accomplished on time and on budget in North America.
But through corruption and lack of accountability, were are led to believe that big projects always take much longer and cost more than projected.

 

[I<3oil]

To me this is the biggest take away from this. Things can be accomplished on time and on budget in North America.
But through corruption and lack of accountability, were are led to believe that big projects always take much longer and cost more than projected.

Georgia Power wants to have a talk

 

[OVERKILL]

Single shaft HP/IP/LP unit. We had a couple small 155mw GE single shaft units at MBPP along with a couple larger 360mw dual shaft cross compound Westinghouse units. All were NG boilers though & not nuclear.

Have to say that I MUCH prefer dispatching units now than working in the plants lol.

Good job Canada for continuing to support nuclear generation. Maybe, but likely not, our policy makers down here can learn a few things and begin implementing sane regulation again.

IIRC, there's a single HP stage and 3x LP stages. Here's a better view of one at Darlington:

 

[OVERKILL]

To me this is the biggest take away from this. Things can be accomplished on time and on budget in North America.
But through corruption and lack of accountability, were are led to believe that big projects always take much longer and cost more than projected.

I think Ontario's nuclear industry is acutely aware of the risk to its own future if it doesn't show that it can stick to a budget and a schedule. Both Bruce Power and OPG are staged to build new plants, and this is critical to making that happen.

 

[MVAR]

IIRC, there's a single HP stage and 3x LP stages. Here's a better view of one at Darlington:
View attachment 177484

So no secondary reheat (hot reheat) cycle. The longer blading in the LP is likely more efficient but more susceptible to Hz swing damage.

 

[OVERKILL]

So no secondary reheat (hot reheat) cycle. The longer blading in the LP is likely more efficient but more susceptible to Hz swing damage.

The AP1000 is the same:

Looks like the EPR has/can have an IP unit:

It looks like OL3 has the non-IP configuration:

 

[cb450sc]

How did you get pictures Overkill when cameras are prohibited inside the plant?

 

[OVERKILL]

How did you get pictures Overkill when cameras are prohibited inside the plant?

When we did our tour of Bruce (the pictures from which are in another thread), one of the guides had an "approved" plant iPhone that he used to take all the pictures with.