Bruce Power says nuclear unit to start soon

TORONTO -- Ontario's Bruce Power said on Wednesday that Canada's nuclear regulator had authorized it to remove one of its generating units from shutdown state, paving the way for its restart in a matter of weeks as Ontario battles summer heat and low electricity supply after last week's massive power outage.

Bruce Power was bought by a conglomerate of Canadian companies, led by Cameco Corp. from its parent British Energy Plc in December. The company said restart of its Bruce A unit 4 will add 750 megawatts of nuclear power to the grid once several tests are completed.

Its Bruce A unit 3 will start generating electricity a month after unit 4 is restarted and will generate another 750 MW of electricity.

The restart of the two units has been delayed for months as Bruce Power has performed extra tests.

"We did have delays as we had to go through the checking of the wires," Steve Canon, a Bruce Power spokesman said.

Earlier in the year, Bruce has said it would start one of the units in April and the other in June, just in time for peak electricity demand in Ontario.

The Bruce A units 3 and 4 were mothballed in 1988.

($1

$1.40 Canadian)

Reuters