Bruce Power Ontario Bruce 7 reactor back in service

NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Bruce Power LP's 822-megawatt Unit 7 at the Bruce nuclear power station in Ontario returned to service on Monday, the company said in a release.

The unit shut by Oct. 18 for maintenance in a valve motor in one of the unit's safety systems.

The 6,261 MW Bruce station is in Tiverton on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, about 155 miles (250 km) northwest of Toronto. There are four 750 MW Units 1-4 at the A station, which entered service in 1977-1979, and three 822 MW Units 5-7 and one 795 MW Unit 8 at the B station, which entered service in 1984-1987.

Unit 3 shut by Sept. 15 and will likely return in mid November.

All of the other operating units were available for service.

The company expects to increase output of Unit 8 to about 822 MW by modifying the fuel-loading system by 2009.

One MW powers about 1,000 homes in Ontario.

Bruce Power LP, of Tiverton, Ontario, operates the entire Bruce complex and leases the Bruce B station from Ontario Power Generation, the province-owned generating company.

Bruce Power LP is owned by uranium miner Cameco Corp (CCO.TO) (31.6 percent), energy company TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) (31.6 percent), BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust, an investment entity owned by Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (31.6 percent), the Power Workers' Union (4 percent) and the Society of Energy Professionals (1.2 percent).

Bruce Power A LP, which leases the Bruce A station from OPG, was set up when Bruce Power and the government agreed to restore the A station to full service. It is a partnership among TransCanada (47.4 percent), BPC (47.4 percent), the Power Workers' Union (4 percent) and the Society of Energy Professionals (1.2 percent).

BRUCE A RESTART

The company plans to restart Unit 2 in late 2009 and Unit 1 in early 2010, and then replace the fuel channels and steam generators on Units 3 and 4 by 2013. The cost to return Units 1 and 2 is estimated at C$3.1 billion to C$3.4 billion.

Ontario Hydro, the former province-owned power company, shut Units 1 and 2 in 1997 and 1995, respectively, because they needed extensive upgrades.

The return of Units 1 and 2 would replace more than 20 percent of the province's 6,400 MW of coal-fired generation, which the government wants to shut by 2014 for health and environmental reasons.

Bruce also is considering refurbishing the four Bruce B reactors and/or building new reactors, Bruce C, at the station.

In 2007, Bruce launched an environmental assessment of the possible Bruce C project that would add 4,000 MW of electricity to the grid by about 2016. Bruce entered the final phase of an environmental assessment when it submitted two years worth of scientific and social analysis to the federal government in September.

Bruce said it would need to refurbish all four Bruce B units between 2015 and 2020. It said it would decide in the future whether it should refurbish the existing units, replace them with new reactors or do both. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)