The folly of Ontario’s nuclear power play

[Oscar]

The folly of Ontario’s nuclear power play

[ http://tinyurl.com/4ru3w4xb ]

MARK WINFIELD, SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL - February 6 2024

Mark Winfield is a professor of environmental and urban change at York University and co-chair of the faculty’s Sustainable Energy Initiative. He is also co-editor of Sustainable Energy Transitions in Canada (UBC Press, 2023).

EXCERPT: "The Ontario government’s announcement last week of its intention to pursue the refurbishment of the Pickering B nuclear power plant [four CANDU reactors] on the shore of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Pickering represents a strategic triumph for the provincially owned Ontario Power Generation utility. The project would significantly reinforce the utility’s already dominant position in the province’s electricity system.

How well the decision serves the interests of Ontario residents, taxpayers and electricity ratepayers, and advances the sustainable decarbonization of the province’s electricity system, is another question altogether.

A Pickering B refurbishment had been assessed as uneconomic in 2010 and the plant scheduled to close in 2018. The facility is located in what is now a densely populated urban area where approval of a new plant would be unlikely. . . . "


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