The Bruce-5 nuclear power plant has been taken offline for its major component replacement (MCR) outage – the fourth unit to be refurbished under Bruce Power’s plan to renew six of the eight units at the Ontario site.
The company said the 817-MW Candu pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) unit, which began commercial operation in 1985, was taken offline on 1 November.
It said: “This represents the second half of the company’s privately backed MCR Project that will see units 3-8 renewed to provide clean, reliable energy for Ontario’s people, businesses and hospitals for decades to come, while also ensuring a dependable source of cancer-fighting medical isotopes for the world healthcare community.”
Bruce Power said the renewed Units 6 and 3 at the Bruce station are operating “with strong performance” and Unit 4 is “setting records” in its MCR outage.
Unit 4 began its MCR outage in February 2025 and is tracking ahead of the schedule for the completed Unit 3 MCR, Bruce Power said.
Unit 3 returned to service in June after its MCR outage was completed seven months early and CAD150m (€93m, $107m) under the CAD1.9bn budget.
The MCR projects are part of Bruce Power’s CAD13bn ($9.1bn, €8.2bn) refurbishment project, which is Canada’s largest private sector clean energy infrastructure project.
The company aims to refurbish six of the Bruce nuclear stations’ reactors to boost generating capacity from 6,550 MW to more than 7,000 MW in the 2030s.
The eight Candu PHWRs at the Bruce facility, which is owned by Ontario Power Generation and operated by Bruce Power, began commercial operation between September 1977 and May 1987.
MCR involves removing and replacing key reactor components including steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes, adding 30-35 years to a reactor’s operating life.
