New Brunswick energy news — Point Lepreau is down again, and this time the trouble came from inside the reactor: NB Power shut the 660-megawatt Candu-6 unit on September 11 after discovering the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak, which released about 200 litres, mostly as vapour, and traced the problem to a tiny 3/8-inch instrumentation line. It is the station’s second shutdown in a single month.
By Maplestime New Brunswick Desk | Maces Bay, New Brunswick | September 28, 2026
Sources: CBC News, Nuclear Engineering International | Last updated: September 28, 2026
Key Takeaways
- What happened: elevated tritium, a radioactive isotope found in heavy water, was first detected inside the reactor building on September 10; the plant was shut down September 11.
- The cause: a leak from a 3/8-inch instrumentation line in the heat transport system, confirmed September 14, the source of the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak.
- The volume: about 200 litres of heavy water, mostly vapour, fully contained inside the reactor building and recovered through station processes.
- The safety picture: NB Power says no risk to the public, staff or environment; no employees were in the immediate area and there were no unplanned employee exposures.
- The pattern: the plant had only just returned to the grid on September 8 after a late-August turbine gasket repair, meaning two shutdowns within roughly five weeks.
Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak Timeline
The sequence behind the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak is tight and telling. Elevated tritium readings triggered an investigation on September 10. NB Power made the call to shut the unit down the next day, September 11. By September 14, crews had pinpointed the source: a leak from a 3/8-inch instrumentation line in the heat transport system, the high-pressure circuit that moves heat from the reactor core.
About 200 litres of heavy water escaped, largely as vapour, and NB Power says it stayed inside the reactor building the whole time and was recovered through the station’s own processes. Spokesperson Tracey Stephenson told CBC that the elevated readings “triggered an investigation to determine the cause,” and added: “The material remained contained within the reactor building at all times and there was no risk to workers, the public or the environment.”
Two Shutdowns in One Month
Here is the part New Brunswick ratepayers will feel. Point Lepreau had only just come back online on September 8 after a turbine gasket repair that idled the plant through late August. That delay alone was estimated at roughly $50 million, working out to about $127 per customer across NB Power’s 393,000 direct customers.
Executives have told the Energy and Utilities Board that an unplanned outage costs about $1 million a day. Every extra day this unit sits idle is a day of expensive replacement power that eventually lands on bills in a province where electricity prices are already a kitchen-table issue.
Related: Belledune Coal Transition 2026 — NB Power Secures Biomass Deals to End Coal by 2030
An Aging Workhorse With a Below-Par Record
Point Lepreau matters more to New Brunswick than most single assets matter to most provinces. The 660 MW net (705 gross) unit supplies about a third of the electricity New Brunswick uses, enough to power roughly 333,000 homes. When it trips, the province feels it immediately.
The station’s performance record raises hard questions. Between fiscal 2016 and 2025, Point Lepreau averaged a 74% capacity factor, well below the industry norm of above 90%. And NB Power’s own annual report warned that “the aged equipment has the potential to cause a major outage due to sudden failure,” as reported by Global News. Two shutdowns in a month, one from a turbine gasket and one the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak, look a lot like what that warning described.
What to Watch Next
- Restart date: NB Power has not said when the unit returns to the grid after the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak; each day of outage costs around $1 million.
- Repair scope: whether the 3/8-inch line failure is a one-off or a symptom of the aging instrumentation the annual report flagged.
- Rate impact: how the combined cost of the August gasket outage and this shutdown shows up for the 393,000 direct customers.
- Regulatory review: whether the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission issues findings from the investigation.
Maplestime will provide updates from the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak as announcements are made.
Have a tip about the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak? Email [email protected]
Have a correction? Email [email protected]
A plant that supplies a third of New Brunswick’s power is running at 74% while the industry hits 90, and its own report warned this could happen: is Point Lepreau still an asset, or has the Point Lepreau Shutdown Heavy Water Leak proved it has become a liability New Brunswickers keep paying for? Tell us in the comments. And share this with every Canadian who pays an electricity bill.
Enjoying Maplestime? Support independent Canadian journalism — no paywall, no corporate owners.
