Bruce Power signs long-term Master Services Agreement
Kinectrics Inc will continue to support Bruce Power's reactor operations, life extension programme and radioisotope production activities under a CAD2.5 billion (USD3.2 billion), 10-year agreement. Meanwhile, a new process data reconciliation/data validation and reconciliation system is improving the output of the Bruce nuclear power plants.
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The extension to the Master Service Agreement between Kinectrics and Bruce Power supports engineering project management, project controls, outages, lifecycle asset management, reactor programmes and tooling, equipment supply, nuclear safety and licensing as well as maintenance activities. Kinectrics will provide solutions to support cost certainty, reduce outage duration and frequency, and "holistic services" to support Bruce Power's Life Extension Program and medical radioisotope production, the companies said.
The Isotope Production System (IPS) that was installed into Bruce unit 7 to commercially produce medical isotopes was developed by Isogen, a joint venture of Kinectrics and Framatome. This saw the Candu unit become the first commercial nuclear reactor to produce lutetium-177, used in precision oncology for targeted therapy of cancers including neuroendocrine tumours and prostate cancer. A second isotope production line being installed at the unit will double production of the isotope, for which demand is growing.
"Bruce Power is pleased to continue its partnership with Kinectrics as we continue to power Ontario's future with a reliable supply of clean electricity and the production of cancer-fighting medical isotopes for the world health-care community," said James Scongack, Bruce Power's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President. "We share a commitment to excellence, localisation and economic development as we deliver on our life-extension, Project 2030 and isotope programmes."
Power gains
German engineering and software company BTB Jansky has announced that its PROCESSPLUS process data reconciliation/data validation and reconciliation system has been implemented as part of Bruce Power's Project 2030 programme, which aims to leverage innovation and new efficient technology to increase site capacity to over 7000 MWe of net peak output in the early 2030s.
Measurement uncertainty recapture is a method used to uprate a nuclear power plant by using more precise measurements of feedwater flow. This reduces the degree of uncertainty in the power level and can result in power increase of up a few per cent.
The application of reconciled correction factors for feedwater flow and temperature as well as for reheat drain flows at the eight Candu units has resulted in a total power recovery of 39.7 MWe, a total financial gain of CAD15.9 Million per year, BTB Jansky said. After reconnecting units 3 and 4 to the grid in 2027 and 2028 - after their refurbishments - the total gain is expected to improve to over 50 MWe.
