Critics slam lack of firm price for reactors

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Ontario is keeping taxpayers in the dark over plans to refurbish the Darlington nuclear power plant without a firm price tag, critics say.

The concerns were raised when the provincial government confirmed the move – first reported in the Star – to refurbish the 20-year old Darlington plant, extending its life to about 2050, and to give the nearby Pickering plant $300 million in upgrades to keep it running another 10 years before closing.

"It helps ensure a stable, affordable, sustainable ongoing emission-free source of energy," Energy Minister Brad Duguid said of the announcement by Crown-owned Ontario Power Generation.

Details on costs will be finalized over the next few years following studies, he said.

But without cost estimates on the Darlington job, slated to begin in 2016, New Democrats questioned how the government knows it is the most cost-effective way to ensure long-term electricity supply.

"You don't make a multi-billion dollar decision based on a guess," said New Democrat energy critic Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth).

"Either they're withholding numbers from the public or they're making a guess. In either case, that's indefensible."

The anti-nuclear group Greenpeace said it typically costs $1.5 billion to $2 billion to refurbish a nuclear reactor, so that could push the work on Darlington's four units to $8 billion or more, given that cost overruns are typical on such jobs.