Point Lepreau restarts operations

The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station began it's full power operations on Sept. 1 following a nearly month-long repair process.

The components that needed repaired consisted of non-nuclear areas of the reactor, which included the reheater portion of its turbine system. The station went offline Aug. 7 to address the issue.

CBC News reported that the repair costs were approximately $7.91 million and this incident was the third time that the facility has had to shut down after being restarted following a four-and-a-half-year-long renovation process.

At the time of repairs, president of the reactor's owner NB Power Company Gaetan Thomas stated that repairs like these are common following a restart of a nuclear power generator.

The power station has an output capacity of 600 megawatts of electricity and it supports approximately 333,000 homes on an annual basis. According to the provinces report, the facility will play an important role as the area is aiming to have at least 75 percent of their electricity to be generated through low-carbon and zero-carbon emission sources by 2020. CBC News reports that in July the plant was averaging approximately 80 percent power output.