The refurbishment of Point Lepreau, which is already expected to be about 16 months behind schedule, has run into a new problem involving the nuclear reactor's calandria tubes, officials have confirmed.

As of Wednesday afternoon, only "eight or nine" of the 380 new tubes had been installed, said Dale Coffin, spokesman for the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), the federal Crown corporation in charge of refurbishing the plant.

The work started nearly three weeks ago and only about five weeks have been set aside for this phase of the project.

The problem is that one of the calandria tubes did not fit properly, said Coffin. The tubes contain pressure tubes, which in turn hold the uranium fuel bundles.

The workers took four days off around Christmas and ran into problems when the second tube installed didn't fit, he said.

The engineers have since decided to skip over that problem tube and come back to it later to keep the job moving, said Coffin. "Installations are ongoing."

New tubes first major step

The calandria tubes, which are about seven metres in length and 13 centimetres in diameter, penetrate the reactor face front to back in big circular rows. All of the nuclear activity of the reactor occurs inside them.

Inserting the new tubes is the first major step in rebuilding the Lepreau reactor, which was shut down in March of 2008 for what was supposed to be an 18-month renovation.

In September, New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Keir and Premier Shawn Graham expressed alarm at Lepreau's slipping schedule, with completion now slated for late 2010.

Coffin said the latest problems with calandria tube installation won't affect that target date because a cushion was built into it to account for unforeseen problems.

Point Lepreau is the first Candu-6 reactor to undergo a complete gutting and rebuild. It was intended to be a showcase for AECL to display its ability to revive the 1980s-era reactors.

The project started running into problems in October, 2008, when two $10-million turbines were accidentally dropped into Saint John Harbour.