Ontario Power Generation urges quick action on nuclear recommendations
14:36:58 EST Dec 11, 2005STEVE ERWIN
TORONTO (CP) - Ontario Power Generation is ready and waiting to build more nuclear reactors and its Darlington station is the best place to do it, according a top official of the Crown corporation.
Since it can take years to complete construction of a new nuclear plant, let alone a refurbishment of existing units, the province should act soon on an Ontario Power Authority report released Friday, which calls for nuclear expansion, said Pierre Charlebois, OPG's chief nuclear officer.
"If a decision is to be made. . . our Darlington site clearly would be an ideal site for a new build," Charlebois told The Canadian Press in an interview.
"We have a very supportive community, and we have the capability at Darlington."
He added that environmental assessments - which can take two or three years to complete - could begin as early as next year to study new units and plans to refurbish existing units at Darlington. Those existing units are scheduled to go offline in seven to 10 years.
"If we are going to have considerations of plant refurbishments down the road, in order to extend the life of the existing facilities, that needs to occur early in the process," Charlebois said.
The Darlington nuclear station is located 80 kilometres east of Toronto in the town of Clarington. Sources say the government has been looking at the possibility of building two 900-megawatt Candu reactors at the site, which would increase Darlington's total output by 50 per cent.
Friday's report from the OPA calls for up to $40-billion worth of new nuclear power projects in Ontario over the next 20 years.
It's part of an overall strategy that recommends nuclear power maintain a 50 per cent share of Ontario's energy supply mix to address potential future shortages.
Critics of nuclear expansion say it's too expensive and unsafe. Past projects went billions of dollars over budget, including Darlington. Its $4-billion cost eventually swelled to $15 billion.
And much of those cost overruns are still being paid off by hydro customers in Ontario, through debt retirement charges that appear on bills.
"Every nuclear reactor has undergone huge cost overruns - in the 70s, the 80s and the 90s - and we're seeing the same thing has continued to happen with the refurbishment of these reactors as they reach the end of their life," said Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace Canada.
He noted that Ontario Power Generation's efforts to restore Unit 4 at the Pickering A facility cost $1.25 billion, almost three times the original projected cost.
"This is headed totally in the wrong direction," New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said of calls for nuclear expansion.
"The Ontario experience with nuclear has been very, very expensive."
But Charlebois said construction-management methods for nuclear projects have improved. And he said the province could agree to launch environmental assessments of a Darlington expansion without committing to the project.
"Clearly, you can launch the environmental assessments and you can start looking at planning without actually committing to a project. But that work needs to be done," he said.
Ontario has already approved an expansion of Bruce Power's nuclear station near Kincardine.
There's a little more than 11,000 MW of nuclear generating capacity in the province currently. But including the Bruce refurbishment and a recent refurbishment at OPG's Pickering A station, only 3,500 MW of nuclear are scheduled to be in place by 2025.
That means between 9,400 and 12,400 MW of nuclear must be added by 2025, according to the OPA.
There's no room to expand Pickering B, and no plans to reconsider refurbishing units 2 and 3 at Pickering A.
The government deemed it was not economical to complete the refurbishments because specific major components of those units are in such poor condition, Charlebois said.
But at Darlington, there's room for expansion. The site was originally designed to accommodate eight reactors but currently has only four. Also, transmission lines to carry a greater load of nuclear-generated electricity are already in place.
Even roads that were put in place to carry construction supplies from boats to the site are still intact.
A Darlington expansion also has the blessing of Clarington's mayor and the broader Durham regional council, who are rubbing their hands over the prospect of thousands of jobs being created for multi-year construction projects.
There is room on Bruce's site to build a Bruce "C" set of nuclear units, though Bruce Power CEO Duncan Hawthorne has previously noted that more transmission lines would have to be built to accommodate a higher load.
© The Canadian Press, 2005