Bruce Power’s top-performing unit has been returned to service after a planned maintenance outage.

In a Bruce Power media release, after setting a site record of 623 consecutive days of continuous operation earlier this year, Unit 8 underwent a planned maintenance life-extension outage of over 100 days this fall. During the outage, the company also harvested Cobalt-60 from the reactor. Cobalt-60 helps to sterilize 40 per cent of the world’s single use medical devices in hospitals around the world.

During the outage, High Specific Activity (HSA) Cobalt was inserted into the unit. Over the next two years, it will be irradiated and then harvested during Unit 8’s next planned maintenance outage. The HSA Cobalt will be used to treat brain tumours through the Gamma Knife, a specialized, non-invasive device that focuses 200 beams of radiation on a tumour or other target, minimizing damage to healthy tissue. To learn more about the uses of Cobalt-60 and HSA Cobalt visit canadianisotopes.ca.

“The Unit 8 outage was an important one in our overall Life-Extension Program,” said Paul Clark, Vice President, Bruce B. “Unit 8 has historically been one of the world’s most reliable nuclear reactors and our skilled employees and tradespeople completed thousands of maintenance tasks during this outage. This will allow Unit 8 to reliably provide carbon-free, low-cost power to the people and businesses of Ontario for about two years," he said.

“As with all our planned maintenance outages in 2018, and as we look to 2019, these successful maintenance windows become increasingly important as we prepare to remove Unit 6 from service in 2020 for our first Major Component Replacement (MCR) Project," said Clark.