Construction The construction of a nuclear powered electrical generating station in New Brunswick had been discussed since the late 1950s. For over fifteen years, engineers from the
New Brunswick Electric Power Commission visited
AECL's
Chalk River Laboratories to keep abreast of the latest trends in the field. Formal talks between the
Government of New Brunswick and the
Government of Canada began in 1972. Discussions accelerated the next year, in the midst of the
1973 oil crisis, as the provincial government began to seriously consider options for diversifying New Brunswick's electrical generation and reduce its reliance on
oil. However, financing the venture was a problem since the province had a limited borrowing capacity. The borrowing capacity was solved by the federal government in January 1974 with the announcement of a loan program covering half the costs of a first nuclear plant in any province in Canada. Premier
Richard Hatfield announced his intention to build a nuclear generating station in New Brunswick on 5 February 1974. Hatfield's
Progressive Conservative Party was reelected in that fall's
general election, despite misgivings of the nuclear generation plan by part of the population. In March 1975, Hatfield declared on television that the decision was final, and that the reactor would be built regardless of the ongoing environmental assessment process, in a move described by New Brunswick sociologist Ronald Babin as the "nuclear
fait accompli policy". At the time of its commissioning in 1983, the total cost was estimated at C$1.4 billion, excluding interest charges. began a $2.5 million feasibility study regarding the installation of a new 1,100 MWe
Advanced CANDU Reactor at Point Lepreau, to supply power to
New England. In July 2010, the
Government of New Brunswick, led at that time by the
Liberal Party, signed an agreement with French nuclear manufacturer
Areva to study the feasibility of a new light water nuclear plant on the Point Lepreau property. In September 2010 the
Progressive Conservative Party gained power and the plan was shelved by the incoming premier shortly after the election.
2008-2012 refurbishment project Public debate Point Lepreau's
CANDU-6 reactor was designed to last 25 years and was scheduled to be mothballed by 2008. Public debate on the future of the plant began as early as 2000. At the time, NB Power estimated the refurbishment cost at C$750 million. In 2002, NB Power, with support from the Government and opposition, pushed for refurbishment. However, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board ruled that "there is no significant economic advantage to the proposed refurbishment" of Point Lepreau and that "it is not in the public interest". In April 2004, a report authored by former
British Energy chairman Robin Jeffrey estimated the plant's refurbishment would cost $1.36 billion instead of the C$935 million figure quoted at the time by the provincial utility. Jeffrey's report made no recommendations on whether to undertake the plant's overhaul or not but advised New Brunswick decision makers to seek competitive bids for new fossil-fuel fired generation capacity. Despite being denied a federal grant to fund the project, NB Power announced on 29 July 2005 that it was awarding
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited a $1.4 billion (CAD) contract for refurbishing the generating station.
Refurbishment work The refurbishment of the power station began on 28 March 2008 and was originally scheduled to last 18 months with AECL as the lead contractor on the project, but the operation was marred by technical glitches, delays and incidents. For instance, two 115-tonne turbine rotors, (not part of the AECL contract) worth C$10 million each, toppled a barge in Saint John Harbour while being transported to the plant on 15 October 2008. The part manufacturer,
Siemens Canada Ltd., eventually sued four companies in an Ontario court, including
J. D. Irving Ltd., for "gross negligence" in the incident. Estimates for the reopening of the plant had been revised several times. In January 2009, a 3-month delay was announced because of problems with the robotic equipment used to remove pressure tubes. A second, 4-month delay was announced in July of the same year. In October 2009, New Brunswick minister of Energy,
Jack Keir, announced a tentative reopening by February 2011 and asked for
federal money to cope with the unexpected cost of purchased power to replace the power ordinarily generated by the plant. The situation is compounded by the strategic importance of the plant in NB Power supply plans, since Point Lepreau provides 4 TWh/year or between 25 and 30% of the provincial output. On 24 March 2010 Premier
Shawn Graham announced that the proposed sale had fallen through, citing Hydro-Québec's "concerns about unanticipated costs". Graham's announcement was contested by analysts who blamed the collapse of the deal on the difficult political situation in New Brunswick, six months before a
scheduled provincial election. According to leaked internal documents, the proposed sale of NB Power and a proposed post-refurbishment staff reorganization of the company had a negative impact on workers' morale at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station and was becoming a safety concern. Over 600 workplace injuries occurred at Point Lepreau between January 2009 and June 2010, including 7 "lost time", 13 "restricted work" injuries and 32 incidents requiring medical aid. According to the internal reports, delays were costing NB Power C$33 million a month: "C$11 million in capital costs and C$22 million for replacement power and interest". On 9 October 2010, NB Power announced that AECL would have to remove all 380 calandria tubes from the reactor and reinstall them a second time, an operation which took a year earlier in the refurbishment program. According to an October 2010 estimate, the generating station was scheduled to be back on stream in the fall of 2012, three years later than first expected. First re-connected to the grid on 23 October 2012, on 23 November 2012 Point Lepreau restarted commercial power production with a final refurbishment cost approximately "$1 billion over its original budget". Pt. Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station was the first CANDU-6 reactor in the world to undergo full refurbishment, and the lessons learned from that project benefitted subsequent CANDU-6 refurbishment projects worldwide.
Advanced Small Modular Reactors On 26 June 2018, the government of New Brunswick committed 10 million dollars toward the establishment of an advanced Small Modular Reactor Research Cluster. This was followed by announcements of the participation of
ARC Nuclear (9 July 2018) and
Moltex Energy (13 July 2018), each investing 5 million dollars to progress research and development of their advanced technologies. Since that time significant development has taken place, including discussions on establishing a supply chain within the province. As indicated on 25 July 2019, NB Power envisions commercial demonstrations of both reactor types at the Point Lepreau site if these advanced technologies successfully complete Phase 2 of the CNSC Vendor Design review and their financial and project planning predictions continue to show promise. New Brunswick participated in the development of the Pan-Canadian SMR Roadmap (November 2018), and is also collaborating with the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan pertaining to the development of deployment of Small Modular Reactor technologies as part of the Interprovincial MOU announced in December 2019. In March 2019, a consortium involving
NB Power, the
Government of New Brunswick,
ARC Nuclear, and
Moltex Energy announced plans to develop
small modular reactors at the Point Lepreau site. This was furthered when, in December 2019, the governments of
New Brunswick,
Ontario, and
Saskatchewan announced a collaboration deal on the development of
small modular reactors. ==Operations==