Industry Partnership: Adding Value to Nuclear Refurbishment and Maintenance

Abstract

The Point Lepreau Generating Station was the first CANDU 6 unit to be licensed for operation, beginning commercial operation in 1983. It is now become the first CANDU 6 to undergo full refurbishment. As part of the overall project, all 380 fuel channels and associated feeders will be removed and replaced. In order to undertake this project, it was necessary for AECL to design and develop over fifty “first-of-a-kind tools” for fuel channel and calandria tube replacement. This paper outlines the complexity of the retube tooling project and the industry partnership strategy for the engineered tooling systems development.