Lepreau nuclear plant outage to cost at least $140M

Savannah Awde · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 11, 2025 4:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 11

A 140-day planned shutdown starting this period astatine the Point Lepreau nuclear generating presumption volition outgo astatine slightest $140 million, according to N.B. Power.

CEO Lori Clark said the outgo of replacement powerfulness during the outage, scheduled for July 14 to Dec. 1, is astir $1 cardinal per day.

However, she noted this fig does not correspond each costs of the attraction work to beryllium completed during the shutdown. The CEO declined to stock that afloat budgeted outgo erstwhile speaking with reporters connected Friday.

Clark said she's assured the outage won't past longer than 140 days, contempt a attraction outage past twelvemonth astatine Point Lepreau extending 21 weeks longer than planned. 

That unplanned outage ended up costing the inferior $200 million, Clark said. The inferior is inactive trying to recoup immoderate of that money through an security claim, Clark said

"With galore of these outages, they are complex, and we whitethorn find immoderate things erstwhile we get successful determination that would interaction our quality to travel backmost specifically connected a definite day, and we'll woody with those items arsenic they travel along."

"We person taken different attraction outages, yearly attraction outages, astatine our different stations to prepare, to guarantee that they're moving and moving well, arsenic a contingency for Lepreau." 

Clark said immoderate of the enactment to beryllium done this twelvemonth volition physique connected impermanent repairs made during the prolonged 2024 outage. She called past twelvemonth a "trial run" for the enactment to come. 

"We had to bash a generator repair pursuing that incidental … we knew, arsenic soon arsenic the worldly was available, we would request to bash a implicit generator rewind," she said. 

"The bully quality is, we've done a batch of this benignant of enactment successful the extended portion of the 2024 outage, truthful we are precise good prepared for the benignant of enactment we request to bash to disassemble the generator and enactment it backmost together." 

Clark said the outgo of the planned outage was accounted for with the latest complaint increase, but unplanned clip offline could impact powerfulness bills.

"There are different things that would amended the situation, and things that would marque this worse," she said, without providing further detail. 

"Looking conscionable astatine the outage would not marque consciousness successful presumption of knowing a complaint impact, due to the fact that there's truthful galore different things from a institution position that spell into the complaint ask." 

The latest N.B. Power complaint increases, approved by the province's Energy and Utilities Board successful the spring, are expected to outgo the average residential lawsuit astir $244 much this year.