Critics slam lack of firm price for reactors

Darlington Nuclear Refurbishment will extend Ontario Power Generation's plant to 2050, alongside $300 million Pickering upgrades, amid cost overrun risks, NDP scrutiny, and emission-free electricity goals shaping Ontario energy policy and supply planning.

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, which has been eyed as a potential fusion reactor site by some, 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 earlier.

Details on costs will be finalized over the next few years following studies, he said, amid concerns about power rates impacts.

But without cost estimates on the Darlington reactors 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, even as interest in fusion grows, 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.

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