Premier keen on new nuclear plants
‘ Prepared to go ahead’ if study recommends it Must ensure power supply, McGuinty says
NIAGARA FALLS—
Premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday made his strongest commitment yet to more nuclear power plants in Ontario, despite the industry’s history in this province of huge cost overruns and sky- high repairs.
“ We are prepared to go ahead with . . . new nuclear if that is recommended by the OPA,” McGuinty told the Ontario Energy Association’s annual general meeting, referring to the Ontario Power Authority. The OPA, which has been directed to create a plan to ensure the province’s long- term power supply, is to report to the government in December.
“ We will act on the best, unvarnished advice,” McGuinty said. “ We know that over the course of the next 15 years, we need to refurbish, rebuild or replace 25,000 megawatts of supply.”
Ontario’s 15 operating nuclear reactors, which produce roughly half of the province’s power, will reach the end of their life expectancy by 2020. McGuinty said he does not believe in pouring “ billions of dollars into uneconomical, old” nuclear reactors.
Since it takes 12 to 15 years to complete a new nuclear facility, the province is under some pressure to make decisions, especially because the government has also committed to closing the province’s coal- fired power plants by 2009. Closing the coal plants will account for a loss of 7,500 megawatts. When the Darlington nuclear complex was completed in 1993, it was about 10 years overdue and $ 12 billion over budget. It would take two 3,500megawatt facilities the size of Darlington to replace the power now being generated by coal- fired plants.
Critics of nuclear power were quick to say McGuinty virtually unqualified commitment shows the “ fix is in.”
“ They have created this unaccountable agency ( OPA). . . which will take the blame for a decision ( the government) has already made,” said Tom Adams of Energy Probe, an industry watchdog.
Aside from the obvious threat of a nuclear accident, Adams said nuclear power has already proven itself to be unreliable and expensive.
Earlier, McGuinty attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the $985-million, 10.4-kilometre Niagara Tunnel project to increase the output of power from Niagara Falls. It is expected to take four years to complete.
After the ceremony, the premier said “ we will do whatever it takes to ensure that we have a reliable, affordable supply of clean and safe electricity.
“ If they ( OPA) recommend that we proceed with nuclear generation then we will do that,” he told reporters. He noted that since taking office in October 2003, more than 2,200 megawatts of power from various source have come on stream and that 9,000 megawatts will be produced over the next five years, or enough power for 4.1 million homes. NDP Leader Howard Hampton said later it was irresponsible for McGuinty to even be speculating about nuclear power until conservation efforts have been exhausted. He noted, for example, that replacing old refrigerators with new energy- efficient models could cut electricity consumption for that particular appliance by 75 per cent. McGuinty told the energy conference that the province would not have a conservation strategy in place until next summer, which Hampton told reporters is valuable time lost.
Ontario struggled at times this summer to keep the lights on. On several occasions, supplies were so tight that brownouts were imposed. On high- demand days, the province needs 25,000 megawatts of power, of which 3,000 megawatts are likely to be imported, mostly from the U. S.
Things looked more grim when Ontario Power Generation announced that two nuclear reactors at the Pickering A generating station — mothballed in the 1990s — weren’t worth fixing, scratching more than 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity off the list of potential power sources. OPG has already spent $ 2.6 billion restoring Units One and Four to service at Pickering. The giant utility originally said it would cost $ 1.3 billion to return all four reactors to service. During his speech, McGuinty was critical of coal, saying he doesn’t believe there is such a thing as clean- burning coal, as its proponents claim.
“ They say that technology and processes that have yet to be fully developed will give us emissions from coal that are as clean as natural gas — including emissions related to sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide. And they say they can deliver all that for no more than the price of gas- fired generation,” he said.
“ Well as they say in Missouri: ‘ Show me.’ Until then, I’m not going to build my clean energy plan on a wing and a prayer,” he said. Don MacKinnon, president of Power Workers’ Union, said the premier underestimates the technology for cleaning up emissions from coal plants.
“ I just returned from Europe where — particularly in Denmark and Germany — they have installed what we would call ‘ new’ technologies that eradicate exactly the emissions he’s worried about,” MacKinnon said, adding Ontario’s coal plants should be retrofitted with the new technology.
Conservative MPP John Yakabuski said Ontario cannot afford to close the coal plants given that they represent 30 per cent of the electricity supply.
“ We’ve faced energy shortages this summer yet Dalton McGuinty still wants to go ahead with his irresponsible promise to close coal power plants,” Yakabuski said.