Idle Lepreau nuclear plant threatens to post worst operational year in 4 decades

Robert Jones · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 21, 2025 4:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

An end-of-the-fiscal-year breakdown astatine Point Lepreau is worsening what whitethorn crook retired to beryllium the poorest operational twelvemonth connected grounds for the 42-year-old plant.

The atomic generating presumption was shutdown connected Monday aft a malfunctioning cooling instrumentality was deemed to request contiguous repair. That hole is expected to instrumentality astir until the extremity of the month  

"Work is underway to repair an contented with the cooling fan and centrifugal assembly," D'Arcy Walsh, an N.B. Power spokesperson, said successful an email. "We expect the presumption to instrumentality to work by the extremity of adjacent week."

N.B. Power's fiscal twelvemonth ends connected March 31, and the latest shutdown means the works whitethorn decorativeness the twelvemonth having operated for arsenic few as 101 days.   

WATCH | Performance meltdown: The expanding downtime astatine New Brunswick's 42-year-old atomic plant:

A scheduled attraction shutdown past spring, followed by the find of a large contented past summertime in Lepreau's generator, antecedently had the works offline from aboriginal past April to mid-December. The latest occupation is dragging the year's debased productivity further 

Not including the years Lepreau was offline between 2008 and 2013 for a $2.5-billion refurbishment, the plant's slightest productive twelvemonth was successful 1995, when it underwent enactment connected sagging unit tubes successful its reactor and operated for conscionable implicit 100 days.   

Downtime astatine Lepreau is costly for N.B. Power and has been cited arsenic the superior origin for its existent fiscal problems.

In February, N.B. Power president Lori Clark told MLAs the fortunes of the inferior are mostly babelike connected however well, oregon poorly, the atomic works performs.

"I've ever said that erstwhile Lepreau does well, the remainder of the institution does good — it's a very, precise important plus connected our system," she said.  

Since it returned from refurbishment successful precocious 2012, Lepreau has suffered a fig of problems and has been taken offline for maintenance and repairs for much than 1,100 days in total.

More than 1 3rd of that downtime has occurred conscionable successful the past 3 years.

It has been estimated by the inferior to outgo betwixt $1 cardinal and $4 cardinal per time erstwhile Lepreau is idle, depending connected the clip of twelvemonth and the outgo of generating oregon buying replacement power.

Clark blamed Lepreau's mediocre show connected galore of the non-nuclear components of the presumption being much than 40 years old, and successful a frank admittance past month, said the inferior was to blasted for not refurbishing the full works erstwhile it had the chance.

"I deliberation we truly person to spell backmost to 2012 to speech astir Lepreau," said Clark. 

"That refurbishment was lone connected the atomic broadside of the station. Unfortunately, determination was precise small enactment done on the secondary oregon conventional side of the station," she said.

"We've learned a batch from that. You can't run a atomic works conscionable by improving the atomic broadside due to the fact that the vigor has to travel retired done the conventional side."