The Pickering nuclear generating station has entered a new chapter. Ontario Power Generation has begun an estimated $19-billion refurbishment of the plant's four remaining active reactors, a project expected to extend their operation by up to 38 years.

Reactor Units 5, 6, 7 and 8 were shut down on Sept. 30 to prepare for the overhaul, Engineering News-Record reported. Major work is scheduled to begin early next year, starting with Unit 5, pending final approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The full project could take up to a decade to complete.

The station, which sits on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Pickering, entered operation in 1971 and once ran eight reactors with a combined rated capacity of 3.1 gigawatts. Units 1 through 4 ceased commercial operation in 2024 and are being prepared for safe storage.

The remaining four units, commissioned between 1983 and 1986, have produced roughly 2.1 gigawatts — about 14 per cent of Ontario's electricity. The refurbishment will add 100 megawatts of capacity.

Scope of the work

According to Ontario Power Generation, the project involves replacing 1,520 fuel channels and 48 boilers, as well as constructing a 1.5-kilometre deepwater intake. The utility has said the project will create 30,500 jobs annually during construction.

"Pickering Nuclear has established itself as one of the world's largest and best-performing nuclear facilities," Nicolle Butcher, the utility's CEO, said in a statement reported by Engineering News-Record.

Contractors named

Toronto-based Aecon Group Inc., working with partners AtkinsRéalis and Siemens Energy Canada Ltd., has been awarded a combined $2.13 billion in contracts for the Pickering work — the third time the firms have anchored a major Ontario nuclear upgrade.

Aecon and AtkinsRéalis received a $1.24-billion, three-year contract covering the retube, feeder and boiler replacement for Unit 5, including engineering services, project delivery and project management. Aecon and Siemens Energy also hold a $922-million contract for turbine generator replacement.

Aaron Johnson, Aecon's senior vice president for nuclear, said the firm is "applying lessons learned, best practices and proven execution strategies" from the recently completed Darlington refurbishment to the Pickering work.

Part of a provincial push

The provincial government has framed the Pickering project as a step toward energy independence. It follows the $9.4-billion refurbishment of four reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, completed in February four months early and $110 million under budget, according to Engineering News-Record.

A similar $9.2-billion upgrade of the Bruce nuclear plant is underway and scheduled to finish in 2033.

Energy Minister Stephen Lecce said "the best way Ontario can fight back … is to build big." The province described the nuclear program as part of a broader plan to strengthen what it called a tariff-proof, recession-proof and almost entirely made-in-Canada industry.

For Pickering, the decade-long project means a sustained construction presence at the waterfront site that has powered the region since the early 1970s.