Ontario's Boilermakers are taking a leading role in some of the toughest jobs in building the infrastructure of tomorrow in our province. Nowhere is that more evident than in the nuclear industry, where members of the Boilermakers union are key in refurbishing and building the facilities at Bruce Power near Port Elgin and the Darlington plant east of Toronto.

To give an idea of the scale of these projects, the Bruce Nuclear plant is the largest nuclear facility in the world on one footprint. The refurbishment of the Darlington facility is a $10-billion project that will take place over the next 10 years.

Boilermakers play a huge role in projects like these. They rebuild the reactor chambers and are responsible for the huge ancillary installations like storage vessels, cooling systems and the various conduits for carrying water to cool the reactors and steam to power the electric turbines.

This can mean jobs like positioning giant storage tanks to tolerances of thousandths of an inch, or using special techniques to weld parts for systems that deliver super-hot steam, in all kinds of weather and working conditions.

Boilermakers are trained for this work in a four-year apprenticeship program that is the most stringent and comprehensive in the world. And their learning doesn't stop when they graduate as journeypersons. The union's state-of-the-art training centre in Burlington, supplemented by facilities in Sarnia, Sudbury and Thunder Bay, provides specialized training in subjects such rigging and hoisting huge components like storage tanks, working at heights, in confined spaces and with respirator equipment, operating high-capacity cranes, working with flammable liquids and others.

Specialized training

The Boilermakers who work on our nuclear facilities need every bit of their knowledge, training and years of experience. But before they work on a nuclear plant, they take even more specialized training.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has built a $30-million mockup of a reactor vault, on which every person working on the reactor must be trained. The mockup recreates conditions in the field as much as possible, with training in the use of a breathing apparatus and protective clothing, as well as working in areas where radiation is a concern. Similar mockups have been built for other areas of the facilities.

It's not enough that Boilermakers take the training course. They must also pass a series of tests five times before they can work on the reactor chambers and other critical components.

Safety is the number one core value for the Boilermakers, the contractors who employ them and the OPG. As the project proceeds, it's a principle that demands absolute adherence and respect. Many things can affect safety, like changes in scheduling and people. Safety can get eroded if everyone is not conscious of it.

"We don't have a choice: we have to get this right," OPG Project Director Ken Hobbs told a recent industry conference. "We need to have all our project partners involved in this, committed to the same values we have. Any break in the chain will have a negative impact."

Thousands of jobs

How important is this work to the Ontario economy? The Darlington refurbishment alone will employ at least a thousand skilled tradespeople every day for the next 10 years. At times, the workforce will double to 2,000. That adds up to more than a billion dollars in wages that will reinforce local economies throughout Ontario.

Once the Darlington project is finished in 2020, it will be the turn of Bruce Nuclear. In all, the projects will mean thousands of skilled jobs over the next 15 to 20 years.

For the Boilermakers union, it means working in partnership with OPG, its contractors and other unions.

"It's all about teamwork," says John Petronski, business manager of Boilermakers Local 128, which represents key people working on the refurbishment. "Nobody can do this alone."

The union has a tradition of teamwork that it brings to the table in this round of refurbishment.

Creative

"The union has gone forward with some unique and creative ways to align with the other trades," says Hobbs. "The Boilermakers are in the forefront of other initiatives too. That reassures the OPG."

"We take pride in our work," says Petronski. "Our aim in every project is to build it safely and build it well. We believe we're working not only for ourselves and our employers, but for everyone in Ontario. That's why we have to - and we will - get it done right."

This article appeared in The Toronto Star "Investing in Ontario" supplement on October 6th - to read more, click here.