Distinguished Merit Award: Pressure Tube Calandria Tube Removal Tool Team

Marc Bouchard, Mike Burton, Dan Cadieux, Steve Cudmore, Telson Hadden, Tim Harris, Christoforo Ienzi, Mitch King, Andrew Kittmer, Larkin Mosscrop, Eric Sansoucy, Terry Schaubel, John Siery, Nick Simpson, and Jody Tessier

For the design of combined pressure tube and calandria tube removal tools.

CNL leverages its capabilities for commercial success and supports utilities through innovation and the development of technologies to realize efficiencies. This project met these commitments by enabling a nuclear utility to substantially reduce its outage schedule via deployment of new refurbishment tools.

These tools were designed by CNL’s Mechanical Equipment Development (MED) staff in 2019 and 2020. The tools remove both the pressure tube and calandria tube simultaneously from a reactor. The design was very challenging due to the complex tool functions and high applied loads that must be accomplished within tight spatial constraints that, until now, were thought to prohibit the combined removal of the tubes. The tools were manufactured and deployed by Candu Energy with CNL’s active participation as designers and field subject matter experts.

This innovation demonstrates CNL’s continued and valuable contributions to the area of reactor refurbishments. The tool was successfully deployed at OPG’s Darlington Unit 3 but is planned to be based at Unit 1 and then Unit 4. The Bruce Power Major Component Replacement project is also considering this technology for its reactor refurbishments, which would require some redesign for their specific configuration.