Ford tosses another lifeline to ageing nuclear

January 14, 2020

“The Premier is rolling the dice by keeping Pickering open well after its best-before date.

The plant’s reactors were designed to be used for 30 years, and yet the Premier keeps them on life support at the same time as he rips up clean energy contracts.

The original price tag for keeping Pickering open until 2024 was pegged at up to $1.1 billion, and this additional lifeline will only drive up these costs.

Aging, expensive nuclear is not the future of energy in Ontario, nor the rest of the world.

The safer, cleaner, low-cost alternative is to invest in made-in-Ontario renewables and to purchase Quebec waterpower at one-third the cost of rebuilt nuclear power.

I continue to call on the Premier to close the plant no later than 2024 and begin decommissioning immediately thereafter according to international best practice.

This will create 32,000 person years of employment, while setting Ontario up to export the expertise to the rest of the world.”

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