Unit 1 at Pickering Nuclear removed from service after more than 50 years of production

One of the oldest nuclear reactors in the world was finally removed from service Tuesday, more than half a century since going online for the first time.
Pickering Nuclear Generation Station’s Unit 1 was placed into safe storage as planned and operators Ontario Power Generation (OPG) thanked the “thousands of workers who passed through its gates to deliver safe, reliable, and low-carbon electricity.”

The four Pickering A reactors, along with three units at Bruce A, were shut down and placed in lay-up “for safety reasons” at the end of 1997 and placed in lay-up.

Units 2 and 3 never returned to service but Unit 4 was refitted and then restarted in Sept. 2003, with the restoration going millions of dollars over budget and leading to the firing of OPG’s top three executives.

OPG made numerous changes in executive-level staff and project management strategy for the follow-on project to refit Unit 1, which was returned to service in November 2005.

The experience with the return to service of Unit 1 was significantly different from Unit 4, with a much tighter adherence to schedule and budget. Originally expected to cost $210 million, the project was revised to $900 million and ultimately cost $1 billion, putting the completed project much closer to budget – at least according to OPG.

On January 30 of this year the Province announced the four ‘B’ reactors would be getting a full refurbishment, a project that should extend the life of the plant by at least another 30 years after it is completed in about a decade.

The two remaining ‘A’ reactors had reached the end of the useful life, however, with Unit 1 officially shut down October 1.

“When one chapter closes, another begins,” OPG declared on social media, “as we focus on helping power Ontario for generations to come.”

Units 1 and 4, along with the four Pickering ‘B’ reactors, produced about 16 per cent of Ontario’s power and employed 3,000 workers.