Bruce Power announced a major milestone in its life-extension program and major component replacement (MCR) project.

The utility says all eight steam generators have now been placed into Unit 3. Crews achieved the milestone on February 12.

The Unit 3 MCR outage, which began in 2023, remains on track as crews look to return the renewed unit to service in 2026.

Over the past six months, Bruce Power and the Steam Generator Replacement Team (SGRT) — a joint venture between Aecon and SGT (a partnership between Framatome Canada Ltd. and United Canadian Operations Ltd.) – have orchestrated the lifting of these massive, 100-tonne steam generators out of the Bruce A station through the roof, then lifting the new ones back in using Mammoet’s 100-metre PTC-35 crane.

“This was a huge undertaking that required more than a year-and-a-half of planning just to get to the execution phase, which was delivered safely and successfully through a high degree of collaboration,” said Rob Hoare, Bruce Power’s Vice-President of MCR Execution.

Bruce Power says upwards of 97 percent of the approximately $250 million in privately funded cost is being spent on parts and labour within the province.

For example, at peak SGRT will employ approximately 425 people, including 320 skilled tradespeople with the rest in project management.

While the Unit 3 steam generators were produced by BWXT in Cambridge approximately 20 years ago and stored on the Bruce Power site, the company continues to work ahead on components for the remainder of the MCR project. Last August, Bruce Power and SGRT signed a $700-million contract for the replacement of steam generators in the remaining MCR outages in Units 5, 7 and 8.

“This milestone demonstrates the success of our team on the Bruce MCR project in executing steam generator replacements safely, on time and with excellent quality,” said Aaron Johnson, Senior Vice-President, Nuclear, Aecon Group Inc. “As the construction partner for SGRT, Aecon is playing a key role, creating jobs, generating economic development opportunities and further expanding Ontario’s strong nuclear supply chain.”