Bruce Power's Unit 8 sets site long-run record of 581 days

Bruce Power's Unit 8 set a new long-run record Tuesday, generating low-cost, carbon-free electricity for its 581st straight day.

This also marks the longest consecutive run for any unit in the Bruce Nuclear site’s history.

“This is a remarkable achievement,” said Paul Clark, Bruce Power’s vice-president of Bruce B. “It’s a testimony to the operational excellence of our entire staff that it has operated Unit 8 flawlessly since returning it to service May 31, 2016, after its last planned maintenance outage.

“Our employees deserve all the credit for this long-run achievement. They’ve created a strategic asset management program that has identified the proper time to conduct planned maintenance on the units, and our learning culture has allowed us to become even better at what we do for the people of Ontario.”

During Unit 8’s last planned outage, Bruce Power invested $146-million in inspection and maintenance activities, as well as asset management, which will allow the unit to operate safely to its Major Component Replacement (MCR) project, scheduled to begin in 2030, said Clark. The MCR will then allow the unit to operate through to 2064.

With continued safe operations, Unit 8 has the potential to become one of the top-performing CANDU units in history, as it is not scheduled for its next planned maintenance outage until Sept. 1, potentially adding nearly 250 days to its current long-run record, said Len Clewett, Bruce Power executive vice-president and chief nuclear officer.

“Unit 8 has established itself as one of the best CANDU units in the history of the technology, and we take great pride in the fact it has operated safely and reliably for nearly 600 consecutive days,” said Clewett.

During Unit 8’s planned maintenance outage, Bruce Power operations staff will harvest life-saving Cobalt-60. This Cobalt-60 will help keep hospitals safe around the world by sterilizing medical instruments, such as masks, gloves and sutures.