Problem at Point Lepreau nuclear plant could prolong 3-month outage, drive up costs

An unexpected issue at New Brunswick's nuclear power plant could mean it will be offline longer than scheduled, potentially driving up costs for the province's Crown utility company.

N.B. Power says it has already completed planned maintenance work that was expected to take the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station out of operation for 100 days.

But just as crews were bringing the plant back online, an "issue" was identified in the plant's main electrical generator, N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said in an email.

"The team, along with a number of industry equipment experts, are currently troubleshooting the problem. After investigation and troubleshooting is complete, we will have a better understanding of the impact on the outage schedule and budget," she said.

The planned outage began in April, and Wednesday marked day 95, Couture said.

She said N.B. Power has replaced key equipment during that time in order to make the station more reliable and improve how it performs.

But with the issue discovered in the main generator that feeds the electrical grid, the station outage "may extend beyond the initially planned 100 days," she said.

The problem at Point Lepreau comes as the province's Energy and Utilities Board hears evidence this week about the plant's declining reliability.

N.B. Power wants to set aside millions of dollars to deal with unplanned Point Lepreau outages. The board now has to decide whether the utility should be allowed to increase power rates by almost 20 per cent to help the utility keep up with its debt payments and cover expenses.

At a hearing this week, an industry consultant testified that it's "reasonable" to budget for more unplanned outages at Lepreau in the coming years.

Marc Miller said recent costly refurbishments helped the nuclear reactor's reliability for a while, but it's been underperforming in the last few years. It's ranked as a poor performer compared to similar reactors, he said.

N.B. Power said it wants a contingency of $5.6 million this year and $7 million next year to make up for unplanned outages. It's forecasting 13 unplanned outage days this year and around 21 days next year.

Glenn Zacher, the lawyer representing J.D. Irving, previously suggested that N.B. Power is exaggerating Lepreau's unplanned outage days. This week, Zacher questioned Miller on his methodology and findings about the reactor's reliability.

Zacher asked how Miller could predict 21 days of outages when the five-year average for Lepreau was closer to 16 days.