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Ont. Says Work Will Begin on New Nuclear Reactors to Boost Energy Supply

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By STEVE ERWIN

TORONTO (CP) - Billions of Ontario dollars will be spent to build new nuclear reactors and refurbish old ones over the next 20 years, but the province's overall reliance on nuclear will fall as conservation and wind power rise, the government said Tuesday.

In a long-awaited response to recommendations released in December on how Ontario can avoid a future electricity crisis, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan's plans call for roughly $70 billion in spending by 2025, including inflation, on a host of electricity projects.

Plans include two new nuclear reactors at a cost of roughly $3 billion, to be built over the next 10 years adjacent to an "existing" nuclear station - likely Darlington east of Toronto, which has a willing community host and sufficient infrastructure.

The province has also ordered environmental assessments to refurbish four units at its Pickering "B" station, and separate assessments several years from now for Darlington as its current reactors reach the end of their lifespan.

It takes at least five years to refurbish a reactor and up to 10 years to build a new one.

In the meantime, an election promise to close Ontario's four remaining coal plants over smog concerns has been put off indefinitely, Duncan said.

But the province said it's also planning to build dozens of windmills by 2025, and double conservation efforts compared to the recommendations in the Ontario Power Authority report.

"I believe these goals can be met," Duncan said at a news conference, acknowledging the plan tries to appease everyone from environmentalists to nuclear developers.

"There is nothing in this plan that does not have political overtones," Duncan conceded, adding that the directives are based on best guesses at supply, demand and technology two decades out.

"This is a moving target . . . things will evolve and change."

The plan will be reviewed every three years.

In the meantime, the OPA will prepare a plan for early next year on how Duncan's directives can be achieved.

That plan would then need the approval of the Ontario Energy Board in a review that could take 12 months - or in other words, three months or more beyond the next Ontario election in October 2007.

That means citizens will get a chance to vote on the Liberals' energy strategy even though at that point no new nuclear construction will have yet begun.

Even before Duncan had finished answering questions at the news conference, seven Greenpeace activists chained themselves together outside his Toronto office to protest the move to spend more money on new nuclear reactors.

Duncan said he offered to speak with Greenpeace activists but protest leader Dave Martin said the group refused Duncan's request that they unchain themselves first.

Duncan noted that under the government's plan, the amount of average daily electricity that nuclear provides Ontario will fall to 40 per cent in 2025 from its current 50 per cent share.

He said nuclear power capacity would be about 14,000 megawatts under his plan - the same as it is today and about six per cent less than the OPA recommended.

"I wouldn't suggest this plan is, 'going nuclear' ," Duncan said.

"I would describe this as a conservation and renewables plan that keeps nuclear where it's at today 20 years from now."

But critics begged to differ, saying Duncan hasn't learned from past experiences with nuclear.

New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton joined Greenpeace in lashing out at more spending on nuclear, noting that costs to building Darlington nearly tripled to some $14 billion by the time it opened in 1993.

Duncan said he'll demand that any new nuclear construction be built on time and on budget and that whomever wins the contract will bear the costs of overruns.

The minister said he'd prefer to do business with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., a federal Crown corporation, if they can prove to him they can build reactors on schedule without added costs.

Source: Canadian Press

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