nuclear-news

Leak forces Point Lepreau to shut down for 2nd time this month

Challenging location of the problem requires nuclear plant to go off-line for fix, official says

Sam Farley · CBC News · Sep 17, 2026, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/point-lepreau-leak-shutdown-9.7345240

The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is shut down again, this time because of a heavy-water leak on an instrumentation line.

The line is part of the heat transport system, which is part of the heavy water station at the plant, Joel Armstrong, the deputy site vice-president at Point Lepreau, said in an interview.

Last week, there was an indication of a problem, he said, and the early indication systems worked exactly as planned, “allowing us to conduct a safe and predictable shutdown to facilitate the work.”

Heavy water carries heat from the reactor out to conventional boilers filled with regular water, creating steam to run the plant turbines.

Heavy water itself is not radioactive but over time when used in a reactor it begins to produce tritium as a primary source of radiation, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s website.

The page goes on to say that tritium is a “relatively weak source of beta radiation, which itself is too weak to penetrate the skin. However, it can increase the risk of cancer if consumed in extremely large quantities.”

CBC News has tried to ask N.B. Power about the radioactivity of the heavy water leaked at Lepreau and is waiting for an answer. 

“We identified that there was potential for a leak,” Armstrong said. “We have lots of early monitoring at the station that gave us early indication that there was an issue,

September 21, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety