The company subscribes to the recommendations of the Auditor General regarding the sale of equipment on the metal recycling market Hydro-Québec carried out this transaction effectively to limit additional costs

Throughout the last five months, Hydro-Québec has been fully collaborating with the six-person team responsible for examining the sale of Gentilly-2 equipment on the metal recycling market, a very specific component of the first decommissioning of a nuclear generating station in operation in Canada.

Hydro-Québec welcomes the recommendations of the Auditor General on enhancing the value of Gentilly-2’s assets. However, the company wishes to underline that it was only after having expended significant efforts to sell the equipment, designed specifically for this nuclear generating station, that it decided to dispose of them on the metal recycling market.

According to an accounting treatment accepted by three independent auditors (including the Auditor General of Québec), Hydro-Québec wrote off all Gentilly-2 assets in the 2012 fiscal year. Therefore, the accounting value of the assets to be enhanced, which are the subject of this report, is zero. Any gain obtained from the enhancement of the value of such assets is therefore a net gain for the company. To date, the sale of assets has generated revenue of nearly 9 million dollars.

The report maintains that certain steps related to the completion of the process for selling equipment, validated beforehand by an external firm, were not sufficiently documented and that additional gains of about $44,000 could have theoretically been achieved.

In terms of documentation, Hydro-Québec prioritized a commercial approach, assigning the time and resources deemed reasonable for the circumstances.
Hydro-Québec wishes to point out that a more detailed assessment of the value of the metals would have led to delays and additional expenses for storage rental, insurance and weighing of the metal. These expenses would have cancelled out the potential gain.

As part of our normal activities, sold metals are weighed in 98% of cases. For Gentilly-2 assets, costs resulting from handling complexity and the large quantity of metals to be sold led the company to sell the metal in lots. In addition, the storage costs justified the company’s decision to act quickly.

Over the last few weeks, Hydro-Québec has updated its internal guidelines to reflect the recommendations appearing in the Auditor General’s report.

Shutdown carried out safely and on schedule

Echoing the Auditor General’s report, Hydro-Québec wishes to highlight the exceptional circumstances of the closure of Gentilly-2 nuclear generating station. The ceasing of operations at Gentilly-2 was a novel and complex situation that required sustained efforts to bring the generating station to a safe state of storage, which has now been reached, to the satisfaction of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)

Since the announcement of the closure in December 2012: 300 new work procedures were prepared to oversee the approximately 2,500 new operations to be carried out
10 million litres of oil and water were drained
5,000 gates et 1,000 circuit breakers were handled, always with the greatest concern for best practices, as appropriate, especially in the nuclear industry

Thanks to the professionalism of Hydro-Québec’s personnel, the operations completed in the last 24 months were carried out successfully, on schedule and in line with the requirements of the CNSC.

Source:

Marie-Elaine Deveault
Media Relations
Tel.: 514 289-5005