Aecon is taking steps to ensure it has the skilled trades to build Ontario Power Generation’s small modular reactor (SMR) plant in Darlington, Ont., announcing a three-year partnership with Durham College.
As part of its obligations Aecon will support the OPG Centre for Skilled Trades and Technology (CSTT) that was recently built by Durham College at its Whitby, Ont. campus by donating to the college’s Building for Skills campaign.
Matt MacDonald, Aecon’s director of nuclear strategy and business development, said the partnership involves financial contributions towards the construction and equipping of the CSTT, collaboration with various college committees on educational programming and potentially becoming more involved in co-op and apprenticeship programs.
Aecon is already involved in OPG’s Darlington nuclear refurbishment project and the college serves as a pipeline of trained workers for that major project and others Aecon is involved in, said MacDonald, as well as other regional projects such as retooling of the GM plant.
“The college is geographically located close to where we do a lot of work with OPG and some of our current and ongoing and future projects, so it just made sense,” said MacDonald of the partnership. “We’ve had a relationship with Durham College in the past and it’s just building on that to help them develop the skilled workforce that we need for the future.”
Aecon is involved in an alliance contracting partnership on the SMR with GE Hitachi, SNC-Lavalin and the project owner, OPG. GE Hitachi is the technology provider, contributing its BWRX-300 SMR, Aecon is the constructor, and SNC-Lavalin will provide engineering support.
Aecon recently announced an agreement with E.S. Fox to jointly fabricate steel components at Aecon’s fabrication facility in Cambridge, Ont. and E.S. Fox’s Port Robinson, Ont. plant.
The SMR project will require new skills given the unique nature of the project, such as installation of the prefabricated components, MacDonald said.
“We’re doing some more modular construction for this, which requires certain welding and other skill sets that we can leverage Durham College to help build. That’s one of the things that we can do through this partnership,” he said. “We can now have dialogue with the college to help them understand what the industry needs are one, two, three years out, so they can start to shape their programming to help develop the skills that the industry needs.”
Aecon has a centre of excellence in Cambridge focused on welding and there is a welding bay named after Aecon at Durham College.
Beyond welding, the college will train a full range of trades required for the SMR project.
“A new project, it requires all the different scopes, it really requires us to leverage all the different trade groups essentially as opposed to just working in the reactor like we are in a refurbishment here,” said MacDonald. “There’s roads to be built, there’s buildings to be built, and then there’s the nuclear reactor, so we’ll be using boilermakers, carpenters, labourers, millrights, electricians.
Durham College’s new Ontario Power Generation Centre for Skilled Trades and Technology in Whitby, Ont. offers training spaces for elevator construction, electrical, plumbing and steamfitting.
“That just builds on the partnership with Durham College.”
The new CSTT allows the college to increase construction and industrial skilled trades enrolment by 750 students and apprentices.
Rebecca Milburn, principal of the Whitby campus and executive dean for Durham College, said “Proud is an understatement” in describing the college’s satisfaction with the new 60,000-square-foot CSTT.
The college has realigned its training spaces with elevator construction, electrical, plumbing and steamfitting now taught in the new facility while the existing space can now accommodate three classes of 20 welding students each at the same time.
“The space is amazing,” said Milburn. “The whole campus has grown almost 30 per cent in the last five years.”
Collaboration with employers is done through program advisory committees for each trade, she explained, with a firm like Aecon represented on several such committees.
“That’s one way to engage our community partners,” Milburn said. “We talk about everything from the curriculum to the equipment, so it’s an ongoing discussion, and it’s so important to making sure we’re addressing those training needs.”
OPG applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a licence to construct its SMR last October and OPG director of media Neal Kelly said the firm anticipates a public hearing in 2024.
The project is currently in the site preparation stage. The work includes non-nuclear activities such as building roads, utilities and support buildings.
OPG hopes to have the licence to construct by the end of 2024, start SMR construction in 2025 and complete the SMR by 2028.
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