Two Ontario nuclear reactors nearly restored

An aerial view of the Bruce Power site with the Bruce B Generating Station in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Bruce Power)

TIVERTON, Ont. - The president of Bruce Power says the refurbishment of its Unit 2 nuclear reactor should be completed in the next few weeks.

Duncan Hawthorne says the reactor at its Lake Huron site will undergo extensive testing before being returned to service.

Hawthorne says work is continuing on Unit 1, which is a couple of months away from being restarted.

Each reactor will generate 750 megawatts and when both are back in service, Bruce Power will provide a total of 6,000 megawatts of energy to the Ontario grid.

The cost of refurbishing the mothballed reactors since the project started in 2006 has been well over $4 billion -- and well over the original estimate of $2.75 billion.

The provincial government has said the cost overruns will not be passed on to electricity ratepayers or Ontario taxpayers.

However, ratepayers are in fact on the hook for 50 per cent of the first $300 million of the Bruce refurbishment costs, and 25 per cent of the costs between $300 million and $3.4 billion. Everything above $3.4 billion will be paid by Bruce Power, which operates the nuclear plant near Kincardine, Ont., on a lease from the province.