​Year in review: Bruce Power’s 2024 highlighted by project excellence and innovation

As it says goodbye to 2024, Bruce Power is reflecting on a safe, successful, and productive year for its employees, partners, surrounding communities, and the nuclear industry, as a whole.

This year was all about continued excellence in projects and innovation, as it will be for the foreseeable future, with Bruce Power’s Life-Extension Program and Major Component Replacement (MCR) project continuing to be completed on-schedule and with quality.

The expansion of the Isotope Production System (IPS) and Cobalt-60 production capabilities, were also highlights in 2024, allowing Bruce Power to produce more cancer-fighting medical isotopes for the world’s health-care community.

Not only is Bruce Power excited for the clean energy future that comes with renewing its existing eight units, it continues pre-planning to explore the opportunity for new nuclear on the Bruce site.

Here’s a month-by-month look at Bruce Power’s 2024:

January

• Bruce Power and its supplier partners made a joint $100,000 donation to the new Saugeen Sparks Training Centre, which provides hands-on introductory skilled trades training with the goal of increasing interest in careers in the skilled trades.
• Named one of Canada’s Top Employers for Young People for the 13th consecutive year.
• Named among Canada’s Best Employers by Forbes.
• Recognized for strong commitment to environment and community by independent Morningstar Sustainalytics.

February

• Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) announced up to $50-million in funding in support of Ontario’s plan to maintain a clean energy grid while continuing to drive economic development and support Indigenous and community consultation. The funding will support pre-development work to study the feasibility of the option for a new nuclear build on the Bruce Power site.
• Recognized as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2024, for the fourth consecutive year.

March

• Issued an additional $600-million in Green Bonds after becoming the first nuclear operator in the world to successfully issue Green Bonds in 2021.

April

• Provided a total of $250,000 in funding, $50,000 over each of the next five years, to support Gateway’s programming and research in support of residents and health care in Huron, Perth, Grey and Bruce counties.
• Announced an affordable housing seed-funding program ($250,000 over five years) to assist surrounding municipalities with new projects.
• Injected $450,000 in funding to help support Emergency Room availability and its continuing partnership with the hospitals in its host communities. The company will provide the municipalities of Kincardine and Saugeen Shores with $150,000 over each of the next three years (2024-2026), with $25,000 going to each hospital annually for its ER support programs.
• With all four of Bruce B’s operating units removed from service, the generating station’s planned Vacuum Building Outage (VBO) began April 24.

May

• Bruce Power announced the retirement of Mike Rencheck from the position of president and chief executive officer, and that Eric Chassard would assume the role in July.
• Bruce Power and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) announced the expansion of their partnership in the production and marketing of cancer-fighting medical isotopes, through an investment in new isotope infrastructure at the Bruce Power site.
• An international collaboration among Bruce Power, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), Isogen (a Kinectrics and Framatome company) and Isotope Technologies Munich SE (ITM), celebrated the installation of a second production line to double the production capacity of the IPS on Bruce Power’s Unit 7.

June

• Bruce Power and its supplier partners donated nearly $140,000 to the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.
• Bruce Power, unions and supplier partners capped Rencheck’s retirement event with a donation of $150,000 to Huron Shores Hospice.
• Completed delivery of harvest of Cobalt-60 and announced it is increasing its capability to produce the important medical isotope used worldwide in the treatment of cancer, sterilization of medical equipment, and food safety.
• Project 2030 progressed with improvements to existing assets toward target site net-peak capability of 7,000 megawatts by the early 2030s.

July

• Recognized as one of Canada’s Best Employers for Diversity for a third consecutive year.

August

• Reached a major milestone in its MCR program, progressing Ontario’s largest clean energy infrastructure project by completing the Unit 3 reactor removal series safely and ahead of schedule.
• Signed a $700-million contract with the Steam Generator Replacement Team (SGRT), a joint venture between Aecon and SGT, for the replacement of steam generators in the remaining MCR outages in Units 5, 7 and 8.
• Continuing the pre-development work outlined in Powering Ontario’s Growth, the company submitted its Initial Project Description for a potential Bruce “C” to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, which is now open for public comment.
• Building on the success of the first-of-a-kind robotic tooling deployed in the Unit 3 MCR and automation of reactor inspection and installation work, Bruce Power signed a key long-term service contract with ATS Industrial Automation Inc. (ATS) for its remaining MCR projects.

September

• Chief operating officer and executive vice-president James Scongack awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his contributions to Ontario and Canada through his leadership in clean energy, medical isotopes and in health care and economic development.
• Awarded a Top Innovative Practice (TIP) Award for a novel approach to in-station radiation safety that leverages 3D printing techniques, using a tungsten-infused filament.

October

• Celebrated the importance of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day with a $100,000 donation to Huron Shores Hospice for its “Moments Matter Even More” capital campaign.
• Commercial operation began on a second production line of the IPS on Bruce Power’s Unit 7, effectively doubling the production capabilities for cancer-fighting Lutetium-177.

November

• Building on the success of its IPS over the past two years, Bruce Power announced that it is looking to expand its production capabilities to ensure a stable supply of cancer-fighting medical isotopes for the world health-care community.
• Ontario energy minister Stephen Lecce visited site to announce that Bruce Power and its partners in the production of medical isotopes, have committed to building a hot-cell facility in Bruce County.
• Supplier partners donated $75,000 to Wounded Warriors Canada in support of ill and injured Canadian Armed Forces members, first-responders and their families.

December

• Independent polling shows that support for Bruce Power’s plan to explore potential future expansion of the Bruce site, is very strong with 80 per cent of residents saying they support the proposal to advance the required long-term planning and consultation work.
• The company is providing more than $1.35-million to support affordable and attainable housing initiatives in Bruce, Grey and Huron counties.

Ontario energy minister Stephen Lecce (right) tours Bruce “B” with Bruce Power's chief operating officer and executive vice-president James Scongack