The whole Ontario electrical sector has been hugely mis-managed by NDP, PC and Liberal governments. Even at current power rates, maintenance and upgrade budgets aren’t adequate, let alone expansion, and certainly not new nuclear. The moratorium on offshore wind was exceptionally bad policy as was the half-assed privatization attempt.
The last greenfield nuke plant built in Canada was Darlington and it ended up way over budget (equivalent of $23B in today’s money) and 5 years behind schedule. The Bruce refurbishments have been pretty successful, the Point Lepreau refurbishment, much less so. But new nuclear is a completely different ball of wax. With AECL being sold off to SNC by Harper, we don’t have the domestic talent for new CANDUs anymore. The experience with AP1000s (V.C.Summer, Vogtle) and EPRs (Hinkley Point C, Flamanville, Olkiluoto, Taishan) has been really dismal.
Not just the Bruce refurbishments but the ongoing Darlington one. I would definitely not call the grid upgrades mismanagement either. The new corridor from Bruce to the GTA makes expanding Bruce nuclear and escarpment wind possible, and ice storms aren’t going to be taking down hundreds of 50 year old hydro pylons anymore. We under-invested for 2 decades, and then had to play catch up, which, yes is an example of poor management, but lets give credit where it’s due. There’s plenty of success to point to.
I’ve heard there is talk of adding new reactors at the Bruce site, though it’s basically only that at this point. Talk. Do you think they would not be of the CANDU/heavy water design? That would be unfortunate. I’ve always felt we had good tech but abysmal management in the nuclear sector.
The whole Ontario electrical sector has been hugely mis-managed by NDP, PC and Liberal governments. Even at current power rates, maintenance and upgrade budgets aren’t adequate, let alone expansion, and certainly not new nuclear. The moratorium on offshore wind was exceptionally bad policy as was the half-assed privatization attempt.
The last greenfield nuke plant built in Canada was Darlington and it ended up way over budget (equivalent of $23B in today’s money) and 5 years behind schedule. The Bruce refurbishments have been pretty successful, the Point Lepreau refurbishment, much less so. But new nuclear is a completely different ball of wax. With AECL being sold off to SNC by Harper, we don’t have the domestic talent for new CANDUs anymore. The experience with AP1000s (V.C.Summer, Vogtle) and EPRs (Hinkley Point C, Flamanville, Olkiluoto, Taishan) has been really dismal.
Not just the Bruce refurbishments but the ongoing Darlington one. I would definitely not call the grid upgrades mismanagement either. The new corridor from Bruce to the GTA makes expanding Bruce nuclear and escarpment wind possible, and ice storms aren’t going to be taking down hundreds of 50 year old hydro pylons anymore. We under-invested for 2 decades, and then had to play catch up, which, yes is an example of poor management, but lets give credit where it’s due. There’s plenty of success to point to.
I’ve heard there is talk of adding new reactors at the Bruce site, though it’s basically only that at this point. Talk. Do you think they would not be of the CANDU/heavy water design? That would be unfortunate. I’ve always felt we had good tech but abysmal management in the nuclear sector.