Darlington Nuclear Generating Station’s Unit 3 is now re-connected to Ontario’s electricity grid after completing refurbishment, Ontario Power Generation said.
Unit 3 becomes the second Darlington unit to be fully refurbished. Unit 2 was completed in early June 2020. OPG aims to have all four units done by the end of 2026.
Refurbishment work on the four nuclear reactors at Canada’s second-largest nuclear station began in October 2016. The ten-year, C$12.8 billion ($9.37 billion) project is expected to enable Darlington to generate electricity for an additional 30-plus years.
Last September, OPG said the project had crossed the halfway point and was on track to be completed on schedule.
Unit 1 refurbishment is approximately 60 percent complete and is currently in the reassembly phase, the power utility said. Unit 1 is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Unit 4, the last of Darlington’s four reactors, will come offline shortly to begin its refurbishment process.
Refurbishment involves replacing key components of the reactor, such as fuel channels, steam generators, pumps, and other critical equipment. This phase also includes defueling and refueling, testing and other maintenance activities.
The Darlington station is made up of four 878 MW CANDU reactors, which entered service between 1990 and mid-1993.
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