Quick Read
- Point Lepreau nuclear plant is back online after a five-month planned outage, restoring nearly a third of New Brunswick’s electricity supply.
- The outage and subsequent delays cost NB Power at least $14 million, with final costs likely higher.
- NB Power faces community and political opposition to its proposed 500-MW gas plant in Tantramar, with the local council now formally against the project.
- Provincial leaders say alternative sites for the gas plant have not been found, intensifying local concerns.
- Regulatory hearings for the gas plant have been advanced to February 2026, with key approval deadlines looming.
Point Lepreau Powers Up After Lengthy Maintenance and Costly Delays
In the depths of a New Brunswick winter, the lights are shining a little brighter—and a lot steadier—thanks to the return of the province’s only nuclear power plant. On December 14, 2025, NB Power announced that the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station was once again delivering electricity to the grid after a protracted five-month planned outage, according to CTV News and TS2.Tech.
This restart is more than a technical milestone. It’s a lifeline for a province where electricity isn’t just a convenience—it’s a necessity. Most New Brunswick homes are heated with electricity, and the outage at Lepreau coincided with a biting cold spell, pushing the demand for reliable power to its peak. For NB Power, the stakes were high: each day the plant sat idle, the utility paid dearly to keep the province powered, with backup generation and imports from Quebec or Maine racking up costs that can easily surpass $1 million daily, especially during winter, according to TJ News.
Behind the Scenes: The Challenge of Keeping an Aging Reactor Running
The Point Lepreau plant has been New Brunswick’s energy workhorse for over four decades, providing nearly a third of the province’s electricity at relatively low cost. But that reliability has come under strain. The plant underwent a sweeping refurbishment over a decade ago—a project that went far over budget and, by many accounts, didn’t fully address problems on the non-nuclear side of the facility. Since then, the plant has been dogged by component failures, especially during its scheduled outages every two years or so.
This year’s outage was particularly complex. NB Power’s crews tackled more than 23,000 planned maintenance tasks, but when it came time to restart the reactor in late November, a bearing inside a turbine failed. The part was replaced, but the plant couldn’t return to service until extensive verification and safety testing were completed. Ultimately, the unscheduled extension added at least $14 million in extra costs, with the final tally expected to be even higher. The utility plans to reveal the full financial impact in its annual statement next June. For context, a similar breakdown last year led to a staggering $200 million bill, a cost NB Power is still trying to recover through insurance claims.
CEO Lori Clark praised her team’s dedication, but acknowledged the challenges of maintaining such an aging facility. To address persistent issues, NB Power has brought in experts from Ontario Power Generation, which has a successful track record refurbishing CANDU reactors.
Gas Plant Proposal Ignites Political and Community Backlash
Yet even with Lepreau humming once again, New Brunswick’s energy debate is far from over. The province is bracing for rising demand in the coming years, and NB Power’s answer has been a proposal to build a new 500-megawatt gas/diesel-fired plant near Centre Village in the Tantramar region.
This proposal has quickly become a lightning rod for controversy. In a significant reversal, Tantramar’s municipal council voted 5–2 in December to oppose the project within its town limits. The council’s motion directs the mayor to formally ask Premier Susan Holt to halt the project until NB Power addresses local residents’ questions in a public forum, with the town’s climate advisory committee present. The council also requested meetings with the premier and the provincial environment minister to discuss broader concerns.
During the debate, community members and a retired physician raised alarms about the environmental, climate, health, and Indigenous consent implications of building such a facility. For many, it’s not just a question of how New Brunswick will keep the lights on, but at what cost—to the environment, to public health, and to the principle of local consent.
Premier Holt, for her part, stated that the province had tried but failed to find an alternative site for the plant. This has only deepened the sense among critics that the Centre Village location is being selected more for expedience than for genuine suitability, especially as the clock ticks toward a regulatory deadline.
Regulatory Rush and the Road Ahead
The debate isn’t confined to council chambers. On the regulatory front, NB Power is under pressure to move quickly. The Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) has advanced its hearing dates for the gas plant proposal to February 2026, after NB Power warned that a key agreement with PROENERGY, signed last July, is set to expire in April. Without an extension, the utility risks missing out on the new capacity it says it needs by 2028 to avoid reliability problems during winter peaks.
Meanwhile, the EUB has granted intervenor status to community groups such as the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition and the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, giving them the right to present evidence and cross-examine witnesses. This sets the stage for a high-stakes showdown over the future of energy in the province, where questions of affordability, sustainability, and community consent all intersect.
The coming months will be crucial. Tantramar’s council is planning further engagement with NB Power, the EUB’s hearings are set for February, and the province’s leadership faces growing demands for transparent consultation and rigorous environmental review—long before the April 2026 agreement deadline becomes the final word.
For now, New Brunswickers can take some comfort in Point Lepreau’s return. But the broader story is one of uncertainty and debate—a province weighing its energy future at a crossroads between old reliabilities and new realities.
Assessment: The facts reveal a province wrestling with the tension between reliability and responsibility. Point Lepreau’s return offers short-term relief, but New Brunswick’s long-term energy strategy remains in flux. The debate over the Tantramar gas plant is about more than megawatts; it’s about who gets to shape the province’s energy future, and at what cost. The next six months will test whether public engagement and environmental priorities can find real footing in the decisions ahead.