Project Overview

The Darlington refurbishment project is one of Canada’s largest clean-energy projects involving, the complete refurbishment of all four reactors spanning almost ten years of work at a cost of $12.8 Billion.

Success of the project required carefully planning and close control of all the sub-projects but the size of the project stretched the clients resources so that they needed help with these tasks.

With over a decade of extensive experience providing Project Managers and Modification Team Lead services to OPG, we were tasked with managing and delivering several key projects.

How We Helped

The projects on which we provided support were;

Retube Waste Containers: Project Manager and Modification Team Leader (MTL)

  • The PM and MTL provided guidance and oversight for waste logistics and container/transportation package design
  • Waste logistics support included an assessment of the in-station transportation route for identification of potential obstacles, applicable shielding, utilization of cranes, and forklifts, in station vehicles, as well as coordination of various OPG and CanAtom stakeholders to ensure waste movements would not have a negative impact to the project schedule. In addition, waste logistics ensured the waste would be compliant with the waste acceptance criteria of the waste facility and compliant with Transportation Regulations
  • The MTL lead the design engineering activities such as COMS, commissioning, AFS and closeout in accordance with the ECC process. Coordination with two separate design organizations (Nuclear Waste Design Engineering and Refurbishment Engineering) were required. To ensure the work was completed within this challenging time frame, the MTL maintained close communication with various OPG and CanAtom stakeholders via weekly meetings, site visits, and frequent reports to ensure that any project issues were identified and resolved efficiently

Through diligent management by the dedicated PM and MTL, concept to delivery was achieve within 12 months. This was a major accomplishment for the Refurb project.

Unit Islanding and Barriers: Modification Team Leader

  • Prepared Commissioning Workplans for Bypass Airlock/Transfer Chamber Doors Interlock
  • Supported the 24/7 Engineering Support Team for field execution of the Airlock modification
  • Containment Boundary Manual Update
  • Coordinated with Supply Chain, Assessing, Civil Maintenance and Ops for procuring, assessing, assembling and operating a spill skid
  • Planned, scheduled, and oversaw execution of installation and Commissioning work, including Darlington generating station (DNGS) work week schedule integration

Dry Storage Overpack (DSO) and Intermediate Level Waste Utility Containers (ILWUC): Modification Team Leader

Oversight and support to Joint Venture (SNC AECON) EPC partner including guiding them through efficient use of OPG procedures.

  • Tracked progress of deliverables, resolve issues and escalate as necessary
  • Attended various meetings as required including PCC (Project Control Center), readiness meetings and Event Free Challenge meetings
  • Ensured issues are dealt with expeditiously and with the correct priority
  • Worked with other Series Leads to lay out overall flow of work in order to find efficiencies (reduce number of outage days) in the Refurbishment Outage window

D3IP Project: Project Manager

The retube and feeder replacement innovation project was established to improve subsequent unit performance by improving tooling, construction and engineering. Our work included;

  • Project management of the engineering and tooling improvement initiatives in matters related to CANDU reactor retubing tool. The he end goal was to reduce critical path duration and reduce cost for OPG
  • The tooling improvement initiatives ranging from minor tool modifications to significant process changes for the construction work packages
  • The PM led early project development activities such as planning, estimating, and scheduling; and developed project plans and coordinated requirements with key stakeholders to meet the expectations and requirements of the Standards for Project Management, Contract Management and Oversight

During execution, the project manager monitored project cost estimates and schedules, and prioritized resources against various projects on a day-to-day basis. Financial cost control and reporting for project cash flow, forecasts, and accruals were generated and monitored regularly to ensure budget is not exceeded. The project manager communicated project progress throughout.


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