AECL has announced that it will re-remove the full complement of new calandria tubes that it had previous installed in the Point Lepreau reactor.
Here is the very thin NB Power press release, a CBC news story with some useful history and context, and a Telegraph Journal newspaper article wherein I encourage New Brunswick to reconsider attempting to complete the refurbishment.
Could be bad news …
or maybe not.
This is all above my head, and I don’t know the differences between Bruce A units 1 and and Point Lepreau, but given my understanding Bruce’s retubing isn’t going badly, this made sense to me:
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/1245246
Maybe this means AECL is finally settling on a solution.
… or maybe not.
With the refurbishment of Bruce #2 and #1 reactors AECL remachined every bore in which these identical calandria tubes and fittings had to be mounted. There were NO LEAKS. AECL decided (took a chance) to NOT remachine each of these bores at Lepreau, with disasterous leaking consequences. Now AECL have to a: remvove every recently installed calandria tube (read scrap), b: remachine each bore, c: purchase all new calandria tubes, d: purchase new fittings and e: install a complete second set of calandria assemblies. ONLY the first installation should be charged to the Lepreau refurbishment, but NOT the second lot. The latter may add 18 months to the Lepreau project.
Until now, New Brunswick had a weak claim for federal compensation. NB Power officials were all over the public record, including testifying before the Public Utilities Board in 2002, that they had studied AECL’s plans and were fully confident. Now, AECL’s irresponsibility is obvious.
Here is a statement from OPG on the order time for replacement calandria tubes. The statement was issued August 17, 2010 as part of OPG’s OEB filing EB-2010-0008 and file here as part of Exhibit L2/15.
“The current lead time for ordering pressure and calandria tubes is approximately 24 to 27
months. The trend in recent years towards longer lead times was a result of increasing
demand from a number of stations embarking on refurbishment work. Until very recently,
a single vendor has supplied exclusively all the pressure and calandria tubes to all the
existing CANDU units, both domestically and worldwide. A second vendor has now been
qualified and is able to supply both pressure tubes and calandria tubes. As a result, lead
times may be shorter in the future due to increased manufacturing capacity.
The current lead time for ordering pressure and calandria tubes is approximately 24 to 27
months. The trend in recent years towards longer lead times was a result of increasing
demand from a number of stations embarking on refurbishment work. Until very recently,
a single vendor has supplied exclusively all the pressure and calandria tubes to all the
existing CANDU units, both domestically and worldwide. A second vendor has now been
qualified and is able to supply both pressure tubes and calandria tubes. As a result, lead
times may be shorter in the future due to increased manufacturing capacity.”
Who are these vendors supplying AECL?
I think there are two suppliers qualified to produce calandria tubes, Zircatec and Nu-Tech.