Darlington’s refurbished Unit 2 reactor returns to service
by Cleantech Canada Staff
Reactor now connected to Ontario's electricity grid with full power
Darlington’s Refurbished Unit 2 Reactor Returns to Service (Ontario Power Generation Inc.)
TORONTO – Ontario Power Generation (OPG), along with its project partners and vendors, announced June 4 it has completed the refurbishment of Darlington Nuclear Generating Station’s Unit 2 reactor and have reconnected it to Ontario’s electricity grid at 100% full power.
“I want to thank our refurbishment team, project partners, vendors and construction building trades workers for more than 24 million hours worked safely and for returning Darlington’s Unit 2 reactor to the grid at a time of unprecedented circumstances,” said Ken Hartwick, OPG’s President and CEO in a statement. “This world-class project performance demonstrates the team’s expertise and their commitment to completing the four-unit refurbishment safely, with quality and on budget by end of 2026 as planned.”
The four-unit Darlington refurbishment project, which began with Unit 2 in 2016, required the support of hundreds of companies and thousands of workers within OPG and from across the province. The integrated team undertook 765,000 training hours in the project’s mock-up and training facility to safely shut down, defuel, disassemble and reconstruct the reactor.
This training enabled the team to practice complex tasks before performing them in the field, resulting in improved efficiencies.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, OPG postponed the commencement of Unit 3 refurbishment from its scheduled start in May 2020, allowing the unit to continue delivering electricity to the grid.
