New nuclear reactors to be built at Darlington

TORONTO—Ontario’s Liberal government will build Canada’s first new nuclear reactors in 15 years alongside the existing Darlington nuclear plant east of Toronto in hopes of generating additional electricity by July, 2018, the province’s energy minister announced yesterday.
Three nuclear companies—Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., American giant Westinghouse, and Areva NP of France—have been asked to submit bids by October, Gerry Phillips told a news conference.

A final decision on which company—and which technology—will be made by the end of the year, he added.
Nuclear provides about 52 percent of Ontario’s electricity, and the province plans to build the two new reactors as part of a $26-billion nuclear replacement and refurbishment program to maintain that level in the power supply mix.
The plants would be the first new nuclear facilities constructed in Canada since Darlington, outside the town of Bowmanville, Ont., was completed in 1993.
Prior to Darlington, a 675-megawatt reactor called Gentilly 2 opened in Becancour, Que. in 1983. Before that, the Point Lepreau facility in New Brunswick, a 635-megawatt reactor, opened in 1981.
Phillips said he would not be able to put a price on the two new units until after the competitive bidding process is finished.
“I think the public expects that we are going to, on their behalf, get the best possible deal,” he said.
“We’re asking all three [bidders] to sharpen their pencils and come forward with the best possible deal and this is the best approach. We’re going to see a pretty aggressive competition for this.”
Phillips said the goal was to have the successful bidder take on most of the risk of cost overruns, but admitted Ontario’s electricity ratepayers also would have to absorb some of the risk if the government hopes to keep other costs in line.
“If the vendor assumed 100 percent of the risk for unforeseen things, there’s an awful large premium to be paid for that,” he noted.
The New Democrats pointed out the cost of constructing nuclear plants is soaring around the world, with projects coming in at double their original estimates or even higher.
They said Ontario should abandon nuclear power and focus instead on renewable energy sources.
“You have to figure in that these plants are going to come in at a much higher cost than any of the estimates, and that’s going to have huge negative impact on our economy,” said NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns.
“We have a manufacturing sector that’s struggling and it can’t take on the burden of these huge growing costs for nuclear power.”
Environmentalists expressed concerns about an electricity supply gap as the province moves to shut coal plants and some existing reactors will come off line by 2014, noting the new reactors won’t generate power until 2018 at the very earliest—even if there are no delays.
“There are a lot of uncertainties,” said Shawn Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace Canada.
“Unless we come up with other options, a different strategy track which would eventually lower the nuclear mix by 2025, we may have electricity chaos in the coming decade,” he warned.