The first round of testing has indicated no significant safety or health concerns, but SaskPower will continue to take the cautious path in dealing with the possibility there might be more than a residual trace of asbestos at the Boundary Dam Unit 3 rebuilding site.
Robert Watson, SaskPower's CEO, said Tuesday morning that when one of the contractors working on the Unit 3 refurbishment thought he detected some material that might be asbestos, the immediate area was shut down and isolated.
"The hatchway where a completely new turbine was going to be installed was open and the contractor thought he detected a substance that might be asbestos on the ring. The area was shut down, air quality testing began and it came back negative. The areas around the site were also tested and air quality was well within all safety levels. But our process still led to the cleaning of all areas of the plant including the lunch room, common areas and so on," said Watson.
The area in which the new turbine is sitting was also cleaned and no air-bound asbestos was detected in the first round of laboratory testing.
"The tests came back inconclusive, so we're taking it to the next level you might call it the A level tests to make sure," Watson added.
All this has transpired since the suspect material was detected in late June.
Unit No. 3 at Boundary Dam Power Station has been out-of-service pending the rebuild and the installation of the new turbine, since Feb. 25 so the isolation of the work area has not affected remainder of the power production capabilities at the power station at all.
As for the installation of the new clean coal technology and the tie-in of the two construction islands, Watson said the shutdown should not negatively affect the schedule to a great degree, it might translate into a week delay at the most.
"We were ahead of schedule on the boiler part of the project anyway. The shutdown doesn't affect any SaskPower employees and I believe the contractors have found projects to keep their workers engaged outside of the immediate isolated area," Watson added.
The CEO said it was too early to estimate how much this was going to add to the cost of the overall $1.24 billion project that aims to collect carbon dioxide and other noxious gases and sequester it underground to be used as an enhanced oil recovery agent in the nearby oilfields.
The carbon capture island of the project is already undergoing some preliminary tests, but it will take months to check off the various sectors as the construction process continues.
"It will be November or December before we'll be able to test the whole system and it will be April of 2014 before we'll be able to return to full production at Unit No. 3 with carbon capture," Watson said.
"I really want to applaud the staff they went proactive right away. They knew their stuff and Occupational Health and Safety officials went to work. So even with the first tests not showing asbestos, they did indicate it was inconclusive. That's why we've asked for the A level tests. They will provide peace of mind and we want everyone there to be comfortable on the work site."
Watson reiterated that while the work stoppage in the one area of the plant will slow down the entire project somewhat, it probably wasn't going to play a significant role in the overall time line and cost factors.
