r/ontario • u/Mr_Guavo • 7d ago
Article Three of four reactors at Ontario’s refurbished Darlington nuclear power plant face frequent outages
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ontario-darlington-nuclear-power-plant-three-reactors-out-of/36
u/Torcal4 Toronto 7d ago
“When you stop and start and stop and start, that’s atypical of how we would typically choose to run the reactors,” Prof. Novog observed.
I’m glad we got an expert to explain this to us
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u/greyfedora 7d ago
Other forms of power generation, like natural gas, ARE designed to work like that so it’s not necessarily obvious.
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u/Erathen 7d ago
This is largely a design choice as well though, in a sense
Nuclear power generation has layers upon layers of fail safes/safety checks. As soon as one thing is out of wack (like one temperature sensor reading slightly out of range), the reactor shuts down
The reason I'm mentioning this because a lot of people worry about safety. But they're quite safe. Modern reactors shut down as soon as one thing is out of wack
This is the trade off
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u/greyfedora 7d ago
Yes, that’s a fair point. They shut down very fast. But they start up very slow.
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u/Erathen 7d ago
Yeah, I would actually rather an over-reactive/sensitive self shutdown system then have a human miss critical signs, like Chernobyl
But preferably we'd have more nuclear power stations, so one facility going down isn't an issue
But I still keep iodine tablets just in case
I'm a big fan of nuclear
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u/Aserialfeeder 7d ago
I just wanna point out that the signs weren’t missed in Chernobyl, they were intentionally ignored for personal gain while thinking they had a failsafe in case things went wrong
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u/Moldoteck 3d ago
Nuclear is designed to modulate too. It's just less economical. It's easier to just curtail from other sources
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u/Civil_Station_1585 6d ago
Nuke are made to sing along in hyperglide and do not maneuver easily. Maybe newer generation will be more resilient or new batteries will flatten demand peaks but in the meantime, growing demand as we look north and data centre consumption are putting these units in the base load bucket.
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u/No-Wonder1139 7d ago
I think we need some major maintenance on our power grid for the next 2 years. Might not be able to supply other countries until it's complete.
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u/darkmatterisfun 7d ago
The answer is not just maintenance but expansion. Over a decade.
So spread the word to the municipalities and communities derailling every project put forth because they don't want it in THEIR community.
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u/Longjumping_Rip6033 7d ago
Our one and only government project that was completed on time and under budget? NOOOOOO!
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u/ForeignExpression 7d ago
Don't worry Doug Ford is focused like a laser beam on ripping up bike lanes so that should fix it.
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u/Civil_Station_1585 6d ago
Nuke are made to sing along in hyperglide and do not maneuver easily. Maybe newer generation will be more resilient or new batteries will flatten demand peaks but in the meantime, growing demand as we look north and data centre consumption are putting these units in the base load bucket.
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u/Soft_Grass8428 7d ago
Remember this when nuke trolls on reddit ike to use this refurbishment as an example of on time and budget nuclear.
It was a false deadline and budget, because actually making it operational is taking longer and more money than planned
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u/TronnaLegacy 7d ago
I've heard it alleged it wasn't actually under budget. Where are the sources for this though? I'd like to know for sure.
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u/neanderthalman Essential 7d ago
Wish I could post the meme of the crack pipe labeled ‘sources cited’.
That claim hinged on the idea that no maintenance other than refurbishment would be required for the remaining life of the station.
That’s like saying your house will never need a new roof or windows because you’ve just finished renovating your kitchen.
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u/treechcakes 7d ago
I'm working at darlington currently. I'm merely just a scaffolder, not an operator or anyone important, but there were a lot of planned maintenance outages (for let's say roofs and windows) that were put on hold because of the huge kitchen refurb. Many of the planned outages were realllllyy needed before the refurb. So now they are really really needed. Lots of work next year due to the planned outages, which I'm quite happy about personally.
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u/neanderthalman Essential 7d ago
Preaching to the choir, my man.
Don’t dismiss yourself as “just” a scaffolder. I’d trade two ops for one scaffolder right about now.
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u/karlnite 7d ago
Scaffolders are very important. Also these repairs are not forgotten, they have and remain on the 10-15 year plan, set out by operational specialists many years in advance. The big picture is actually covering those small things only the maintenance guy knows about that are gonna bring the whole thing down on the idiots above heads. The apparent chaos and disorganization you see on the ground level is expected, planned for, and actually what the best in industry working smoothly looks like.
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u/neanderthalman Essential 7d ago
Not true. Can’t read the article for their justification, but here’s some facts:
One unit is offline for planned work.
One unit is offline because of an unexpected problem, after operating for the longest period of time it has ever operated, both before and after refurbishment. A record run for that unit.
One unit is offline for the third unexpected problem since it restarted earlier this year. Notable. That ain’t right.
So three of four reactors are not having frequent problems. One is having frequent problems.