My government dumps nuclear waste, and I cheer

Costs kill Ontario’s new nukes 4

It all started so well.  Almost exactly three years ago, Ontario’s government announced the construction of two new nuclear reactors to replace ageing parts of our current power supply.  Despite the drawbacks of being announced in the middle of summer vacation season and happening in Ontario, it nonetheless made news around the world.  This was probably the furthest that any proposal for nuclear building had gotten in the 21st century, and it was kind of a big deal: The Washington Post said it “put Canada at the leading edge of what the nuclear industry calls a ‘renaissance’ of support for nuclear power.”

The usual suspects touted Ontario’s nuclear ambitions as a sign that nuclear power was hip and cool again.  See—even the Canadians are doing it!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  Earlier in the spring, there were persistent rumours that, after getting bids from the major nuclear players, Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman was suffering from “sticker shock”.  Throw in a major global recession, and a provincial government that his already mired in a scandal for wasting taxpayer’s money by the millions, and it was starting to look bleak for the our shiny new reactors.  It certainly didn’t help that the Federal government decided to throw a monkey wrench into things.

Then, this morning, we get a short press release from George Smitherman’s office:

The Government of Ontario today announced that it has suspended the competitive RFP to procure two replacement nuclear reactors planned for the Darlington site….

The submission from AECL was compliant with the terms of the RFP and the objectives of the Government. However, concern about pricing and uncertainty regarding the company’s future prevented Ontario from continuing with the procurement at this time.

This makes my home and native land the latest jurisdiction to reconsider the much-ballyhooed, little-realized nuclear renaissance.

Of course, this is happening at the same time as Ontario reels out major new subsidies for green energy and remains committed to phasing out coal for good by 2014.  No word on whether that will be pushed back for a second time because of the nuclear delays, so it’s possible that this is at best a mixed blessing.  But given that at the very least we’re looking at saving billions of dollars, I call this a win.

John McGrath is an intinerant student and sometimes reporter currently living in Toronto, Canada. He mainly writes about Canadian and International Politics from an energy and climate perspective

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  1. Dave from Canada Posted 2:30 pm
    29 Jun 2009

    Sadly, the Minister indicated that Ontario "remains committed to nukes" and the news release says "Nuclear power... provides a reliable, stable and clean supply of base load electricity."Clean?!(Hopefully, the new rate structure for electricity and investments in renewables will help Ontario reduce the need for new nuclear supplies. Or we will see a new RFP...)

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  2. Des Emery Posted 5:47 pm
    05 Jul 2009

    A lot of people don't like Nuclear anything. Atomic Energy Canada Limited is no exception, even if it has the best record of use, the most reliable generation, etc. The federal government has made no secret of its desire to "privatize" what has always been a public utility. George Smitherman is a wily and pro-active "left-leaning" politico and his abrupt decision not to sink tax money into private pockets (the other bidders for supplying atomic energy to Ontario are Areva of France and General Electric of the USA) can be seen as his saying "No way" to Harper's efforts to find someone to take over AECL which made the lowest bid with the most favourable (to Canada)  conditions attached.

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  3. sindark's avatar

    sindark Posted 12:16 pm
    07 Jul 2009

    So far, this seems like a ploy to get extra support from the federal government. The real fate of nuclear in Ontario probably won't be determined until the feds decide what (if anything) to offer in subsidies and guarantees.

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  4. Des Emery Posted 6:14 pm
    07 Jul 2009

    Exactly, Sindark.  Smitherman can play poker with the Feds as well as anyone.  He is trying to force Harper's hand, make him ante up his real intentions with relation to AECL.  If Ontario 'buys' new power from the Feds, Harper will find it much easier to sell off Chalk River to Areva or GE and then shift responsibility for nuke power to the new owners and put the blame for extra costs onto Ontario.  If Harper can't use Ontario's committal to buy future power from AECL, Harper might have to take a much lower price for Chalk River (and The Maple Reactors) and suffer the consequences when our deficit is already mushrooming like the proverbial atomic cloud.  Public opinion really does count in his machinations. 

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