Ontario Needs New Nukes

(Totonto) It should be simple to understand that a number of major generating facilities, representing thousands of megawatts, have reached or are reaching the end of their useful lives and no replacement generating units are in the pipeline. Since the time required to build new units can be more than a decade, analysts believe the time to act is now to assure that power will be available to the grid in the future.

From TheStar.com:

Ontario needs more nuclear power plants and will soon have to decide how many and where new reactors should be built, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan says.

"I think the people of Ontario need to know that that decision is coming quickly ... clearly we have to look seriously at nuclear. There is no doubt (sic) it," he told the Toronto Star yesterday.

Duncan said the existing nuclear reactors, which produce about 50 per cent of the province's power, will reach the end of their life expectancy by 2020, putting Ontario's energy future even further into question.

And since it takes 12 to 15 years to complete a nuclear facility, costing billions of dollars, time is of the essence, the minister said.

Ontario, with a liberal government and an environmentally-idealistic electorate, may literally have to have the lights turned off before approval is given for new nuclear power plants. Already, Greenpeace Canada spokesman Dave Martin has said that there is a conspiracy at work by the government, Ontario Power Generation, and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to overstate Ontario's electricity needs. Interestingly, Martin's assertion comes on the heels of several system-wide brownouts imposed by operators due to insufficient generating capabilities.

Just the thought of new nuclear plants has the environmentalists puckered as they continue to advocate alternative energy sources and conservation. Unfortunately, wind power, solar cells, and conservation have not proven to be able to take the place of large capacity fossil, hydro, and nuclear units in terms of cost and reliability. Typically, wind farms and solar generators have to rely on subsidies and tax credits to produce power competitively. Also, the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. Nevertheless, solar and wind power, and also conservation, are fine for tweaking the edges of a power supply curve, but they're not capable of producing the thousands of megawatts of electricity required to meet the residential and industrial needs of the province.

In summary, it's foreseen that Ontario will not be able to meet the electrical needs of its citizens without building new, large generating facilities. The choices are coal, oil, nuclear, and hydro, all of which represent some defined, manageable risk to the environment with hydro fairly exploited to the maximum already. The Energy Minister and others favor nuclear power. On the other hand, the environmentalists are against all options other than alternative sources and they won't be satisfied until the world is blanketed with wildflowers and bunny rabbits and folk music is piped in from the heavens. Expect a loud political debate on the issue.