Aging nuclear equipment `troubles' energy minister

- Energy Minister Dwight Duncan says he is troubled by reports of aging equipment at the Darlington nuclear facility, especially at a time when Ontario needs all the power it can find.

The 3,524-megawatt plant, 70 kilometres east of Toronto, provides 15 to 20 per cent of Ontario's electricity.

But problems with feeder pipes in the reactors, as noted in a recent review, are "the first symptom of aging and there are other things that will start to show as well," Duncan said.

Feeder tubes carry heavy water in and out of the reactor core.

The review was conducted by KPMG and commissioned by Ontario Power Generation's interim board of directors.

"It's my understanding that (these problems are) ... a precursor to other problems. It's a sign that the reactors are getting old and their useful life is starting to wane," Duncan said.

"It's a bad time ... it is troubling," he said recently, referring to the findings, first detailed in The Toronto Star some time ago. Duncan has pegged the cost of upgrading the province's aging electricity system at $40 billion.

Former federal finance minister John Manley, who chaired a three-person panel looking into alternative power sources, recommended the province go ahead with the remaining retrofits at Pickering A, despite the horrendous cost overruns and delays in restarting the first reactor.

The project cost was close to $1 billion — almost as much as the original projection to retrofit all four reactors.

NDP leader Howard Hampton said the KPMG report is further evidence "that nuclear power is incredibly expensive and before any government chooses to go down the nuclear road any further there needs to be a full and public examination of nuclear power."

The Ontario government's promise to close its five coal-fired plants by 2007 will make the looming energy shortage worse.