N.B. looks to Ontario Power Generation to get Point Lepreau nuclear plant operating reliably

Before the shutdown, N.B. Power allowed cameras in for a rare look inside the nuclear power plant (Laura Brown/CTV News).

MACES BAY, N.B. - At 43 years old, Point Lepreau Nuclear—Canada’s only nuclear power plant outside Ontario—is critical to New Brunswick’s energy supply, providing between 30 and 40 per cent of the province’s electricity when it is operating.

On April 10, Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station went offline for a planned 119-day maintenance shutdown, just four months after it completed a 153-day planned outage.

But N.B. Power and the province’s energy minister tell CTV News, these outages are necessary to getting the nuclear plant on track and operating consistently, after years where “we underinvested in our maintenance,” said N.B.’s energy minister, René Legacy.

They’ve also enlisted Ontario nuclear engineers to help.

“The investments we’re doing right now, they did that years ago. So they’re reaping the rewards now. So, I’m just hoping, well, I’m confident that we’re going to see some of those results,” said Legacy.

On April 1, New Brunswick begun a three-year agreement with Ontario Power Generation’s Laurentis Energy Partners. Nuclear engineers are now onsite, lending their expertise to try and get Lepreau online and operating reliably.

The agreement is worth $25 million each year, with room for up to $8 million in bonuses should the agreement result in measurable improvements.

Only weeks into that agreement, Chief Nuclear Officer Steve Bagshaw said he’s hopeful.

“They’ve got a proven track record. And when we look to the improvements we’re making here at Point Lepreau, it builds on the strength of the workforce we have here,” he said. “And it’s designed to support us with that expertise.”

Bagshaw said there’s another planned maintenance outage for 2027 as well but said it will be much shorter.

The hope is to see Lepreau undergo planned outages only every other year, by 2029. When it’s offline, it costs N.B. Power $1-$1.5 million a day to source that power elsewhere.

It’s also getting hard to source that power from neighbouring jurisdictions, Legacy said.

“Power is becoming scarce for our neighbours also, so it’s not necessarily available,” he said. “But if we were to say, we’re going to stop doing Lepreau, we have to replace it with something else, which means more capital spending, more money.”

And N.B. Power has already invested over $800 million between 2022 and 2026 to upgrade Lepreau.

Looking to Lepreau’s future

Despite its problems, Legacy and Bagshaw have high hopes for the nuclear plant’s future.

One of the goals of this planned shutdown is to see if they could harvest isotopes at the nuclear plant, as early as next year.

Legacy said he also sees the site expanding and is engaging in conversations about it now.

“We have a federal government that has clearly indicated that they want to [add] new nuclear outside of Ontario before 2035. We’re the most ready jurisdiction to have that,” he said. But he acknowledged, nuclear is “expensive,” and maintains N.B. can’t do it alone.

“There’s no way that we can spread that cost over to ratepayers in New Brunswick. We’re going to need some partnerships. Federal government’s going to have to be one of those partners,” he said.

Lepreau’s current licence expires in 2032. In 2022, N.B. Power had requested to renew the licence for 25 years but were only granted 10.

CTV News did contact Ontario Power Generation and Laurentis Energy Partners for this story but did not hear back.