Ottawa spends $200 million more on AECL
Ottawa disclosed the amount in a supplementary budget estimate.
The funding, according to the document, "will be used to address a cash shortfall caused by unexpected technical challenges on CANDU reactor refurbishment contracts."
It's the same explanation given in February, when $100 million was allocated to cover overruns. The same month, the federal budget earmarked $351 million to federally owned Atomic Energy so it could continue design work on its Advanced CANDU Reactor and conduct repairs of the troubled Chalk River research reactor.
"That's a total subsidy for AECL in 2009 of $651 million so far," said Shawn-Patrick Stensil of the anti-nuclear environmental group Greenpeace.
"It's telling, when you consider the federal government isn't likely to fetch more than $300 million for AECL as part of its privatization efforts."
Atomic Energy's two refurbishment projects in Canada – the restart of two Bruce Power reactors northwest of Toronto and the overhaul of the Pointe Lepreau plant in New Brunswick – are over budget and delayed.
Related News
Thermal power plants’ PLF up on rising demand, lower hydro generation
LOS ANGELES - Capacity utilisation levels of coal-based power plants improved in May because of rising demand and lower generation from hydroelectric sources. The plant load factor (PLF) of thermal power plants went up to 65.3% in the month, 1.7 percentage points higher than the year-ago period.
While PLFs of central and state government-owned plants were 75.5% and 64.5%, respectively, the same for independent power producers (IPPs) stood at 57.8%. Though PLFs of IPPs were higher than May 2017 levels, it failed to cross the 60% mark, which eases debt servicing capabilities of power generation assets.
Thermal power plants generated 96,580 million…
