Two New Reactors at Darlington
Energy related...
New reactors for Darlington
Jun 16, 2008 10:05 AM
Robert Benzie
Queen's Park Bureau Chief
Two new nuclear reactors will be built at Darlington by Ontario Power Generation, Energy Minister Gerry Phillips announced this morning.
As widely expected, the publicly owned OPG will construct a new plant east of Toronto in a project that should create about 3,500 direct construction and engineering jobs between 2012 and 2018.
Three firms are bidding to design the power plants: the federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which makes the existing Candu reactors; U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric; and Areva of France, the world’s largest nuclear reactor company.
The Liberal government wants nuclear plants to remain the source of half of Ontario’s electricity in coming decades as the province weans itself off heavily polluting coal plants.
Coal-fired plants, which contribute to deadly smog and greenhouse gas emissions, will be phased out in 2014.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has warned Ontarians to brace themselves for cost overruns, as is the norm for nuclear projects in Canada.
“We are determined to keep costs down as much as we can,†McGuinty said last week.
“It’s an expensive proposition, there’s no doubt about that,†he said. “It’s really hard to nail down precise costs today given ... we don’t know what’s going to happen to so many of the costs of so many of the inputs.â€
Experts estimate the cost of a new or refurbished plant at between $8 billion and $15 billion, depending on size.
The province is looking at a two-reactor plant with a total generating capacity of between 2,000 and 3,500 megawatts.
Ontario’s nuclear power plants are notorious for cost overruns in both construction and refurbishment. The current upgrading of two reactors at the Bruce station is running $350 million over budget.