The $1.4-billion refurbishment of the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant just west of Saint John is falling farther behind schedule, NB Power said in a news release late Tuesday afternoon.

"At present the job is three to four months behind," the release said. "The principal cause for the delay continues to be the retube activities performed by [general contractor Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.] using complex tooling developed for this first-of-its-kind job."

'The further away we get from our original completion date, the more pressure all of us will continue to feel.'—NB Power

The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, the only nuclear power facility in the Atlantic provinces, has been shut down for a major refit since April. At full operation, the 25-year-old facility produces 30 per cent of the power the province uses.

If work on refreshing key components is successful, according to NB Power's "Powering the Future" website, "This will be the first refurbishment of a CANDU 6 reactor in the world and will extend the life of the station for an additional 25 to 30 years."

The project was initially supposed to see the plant up and running again by September 2009.

Staff loans an attempt to speed up work

In order to help speed the work, New Brunswick's power utility says it has been lending some of its senior staff to the refurbishment team led by AECL — including, most recently, the head of NB Power's construction unit.

NB Power adds that it has warned AECL, a nuclear technology provider that has contracts around the world, that it faces both financial penalties and damage to its reputation if the Point Lepreau work continues to stretch beyond the length of time promised when the refurbishment contract was signed.

"The further away we get from our original completion date, the more pressure all of us will continue to feel," the news release says.