Wesleyville rumoured for nuclear expansion

WESLEYVILLE, ONTARIO - The prospect of a new nuclear power plant at the Wesleyville site, just west of Port Hope, has come up in preliminary discussions, according to Greenpeace.

The Globe and Mail reported in a recent front-page story that Ontario Power Generation executives met with Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) officials to discuss construction at the Wesleyville site, or at the Darlington nuclear site. The newspaper attributed the information to documents obtained by the environmental organization, Greenpeace, through a federal access-to-information request.

Greenpeace spokesperson Shawn-Patrick Stensil said the information request was filed late in 2005. WesleyvilleÂ’s name came up in an internal e-mail from CNSC president Linda Keen to her staff. OPG had requested the meeting with Ms. Keen to discuss the refurbishment of some nuclear facilities and the possible building of new facilities, Mr. Stensil continued. The two parties met Nov. 28.

“An interesting part of the document was one of the reasons they are talking about Wesleyville is because they admitted the population is quickly encroaching in on Darlington,” he said.

“There have been a lot of rumours going around, and we’ve been watching the government saying no decision has been made, but acting in a quiet way to advance a nuclear agenda for the last year.”

But OPG spokesperson John Earl stated there is no validity to GreenpeaceÂ’s claims, nor the Globe and Mail report.

“Ontario Power Generation has no mandate for new building,” Mr. Earl said. “We were down talking to the CNSC about the refurbishment potential for the Pickering B station and the Darlington station.

“Ontario Power Generation has a mandate to improve the operations of its existing facilities but beyond that, we have no undertaking whatsoever,” Mr. Earl said.

Northumberland Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi said the province has not directed OPG to pursue the building of new nuclear reactors.

OPG has reported to the province a looming energy shortage, Mr. Rinaldi said. The energy minister has given instruction to explore all options. Any meeting with the CNSC is likely part of the exploration process, he said.

“There is no direction from the government (to look into nuclear),” Mr. Rinaldi said. “It certainly is not government-related.”

Port Hope Mayor Rick Austin said he is not ready to comment about the possibility of a new nuclear power plant coming to Wesleyville. At this point he is still doing his own investigating.

“All it is, is an article,” he said of the report in the Globe and Mail.

Even if it was decided a plant would be built at Wesleyville, it could take more than a decade to become reality, Mayor Austin said. If anything at all is in the works, it would only be preliminary at this point.

He said it may not be his place, as outgoing mayor, to comment.

“With my term as mayor coming to an end, I can make all the statements about it I want but I don’t want to do that.”

However, such project would bring jobs to this area, Mayor Austin added.

CNSC spokesperson Aurele Gervais said no application for a new build site has been submitted by OPG.

“It is not the responsibility of the CNSC to make a decision on the citing of any potential new nuclear power plant,” Mr. Gervais said. “Since the CNSC has not received any application for a new nuclear power plant, it will not be making a comment on a particular site.”

Mr. Stensil said he believes the province is pushing for more nuclear energy, but quietly.

“What we’ve been seeing is a duck-and-dodge nuclear strategy by the McGuinty government,” he said. “The government is pushing ahead really quickly with trying to get nuclear projects off the ground.”

The documents obtained by Greenpeace do make mention as Wesleyville as a possible site, Mr. Stensil confirmed.

Ontario Hydro purchased the Wesleyville land in the late 1960Â’s and began constructing an oil-fired electricity generating station. However, construction eventually ended and the facility was never used for power-generation.