Embalse Refurbishment: Update of Progress

Abstract

Following several years of detailed planning and preparation, the Embalse NPP (Córdoba Province, Argentina), was shut down on December 31, 2015, to embark on the execution phase of the Life Extension Project (LEP). Typically, the Outage Critical Path activity for the life extension of a CANDU6 reactor consists of the Fuel Channel and Feeder Replacement, named “Retubing”. For this activity, Candu Energy, Inc engineering as well as previously used and successfully proven tools and procedures are being used. With this being the third CANDU6 retubing campaign, the processes and tooling have been further refined to minimize the critical path duration. NASA is leading the execution of the work with on-site support from Candu Energy technical advisors. So far, the plant has been successfully defueled and drained, and the reactor component replacement activities are advancing well with the removal phase already complete.