Tooling systems, patents, and innovations including combined pressure tube and calandria tube removal

Even though SNC Lavalin – Candu Energy already owns hundreds of patents covering retubing of CANDU reactors, it has continued investing on initiatives that further develop and enhance the processes and systems deployed on CANDU refurbishment projects. Many additional patented systems and processes are in various stages of development with an aim to reduce refurbishment outage duration. Depending on when and how the initiatives are incorporated into the CANDU retube process, the refurbishment outage duration has the potential to be reduced by months, not days. The reduction in overall outage schedule will yield cost benefits to the utility associated with reduced labour and replacement generation costs.