It could be mid-November before the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is back online, according to NB Power.
The facility was taken offline in early April for what was supposed to be a 100-day planned maintenance outage.
During start-up, the utility said crews discovered a “critical issue” related to the main generator on the non-nuclear side of the station.
“The full extent of this issue is still being investigated and we are working toward resolving it,” NB Power said in a news release on Thursday.
“While new developments can always affect schedules, our team is working toward a goal of restoring operations by mid-November.”
The utility said the longer-than-expected outage will not affect the supply of power to customers in the province.
NB Power is relying on its other generation units and neighbouring jurisdictions to make up for the lost power.
Point Lepreau produces up to 705 megawatts of power and is the source of electricity for more than one-third of New Brunswick’s in-province energy requirements.
“While the station is not operating, we are using this time to do other work that cannot be done during normal station operations. This will have additional longer-term benefits to making the facility more efficient and effective,” said the utility.
It costs NB Power an average of $900,000 for each day that Point Lepreau is offline.
