Ontario is planning to push forward with an entire renovation of Pickering Nuclear Energy Station, scrapping earlier plans to retire the decades-old facility.
Minister of Power Todd Smith made the announcement on Tuesday morning, confirming plans the federal government will proceed to depend on the facility station for many years to return.
“With global business looking to expand in jurisdictions with reliable, affordable and clean electricity, a refurbished Pickering Nuclear Generating Station would help Ontario compete for and land more game-changing investments,” Smith stated.
“The refurbishment of Pickering would create thousands of new jobs and help produce at least another 30 years of safe, reliable and clean electricity to power the next major international investment, the new homes we are building and industries as they grow and electrify.”
Smith had requested OPG in 2022 to review the feasibility of refurbishing the location.
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The minister is asserting in the present day that the refurbishment will proceed and that OPG plans on spending $2 billion on engineering and design work for the mission anticipated to be accomplished within the mid-2030s.
Neither Smith nor OPG officers would give an estimate for the way a lot the whole refurbishment will value.
“It would be irresponsible at this point in time to put a number out there, because it’s this essential design and scoping and engineering work that is going to get us to the place where we can have a number,” Smith stated.
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OPG stated a refurbishment at its Darlington Nuclear Producing Station is costing $12.8 billion and is on time and on funds.
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Ken Hartwick, CEO of OPG, stated the Darlington refurbishment in addition to one at Bruce Energy will assist information the Pickering life extension.
“We have learned a lot about what it takes to refurbish a nuclear station the right way with thousands of lessons learned from Darlington and Bruce Power that we will apply to Pickering,” Hartwick stated.
Pickering alone is answerable for round 14 per cent of Ontario’s electrical energy.
The nuclear energy plant — which has been working because the Eighties — has turn into an more and more key a part of Ontario’s power plans because the province faces a provide scarcity within the 2020s and early 2030s.
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In 2022, the federal government introduced it could lengthen Pickering previous its initially deliberate closure date to 2026 and stated it was weighing plans for a long-term refurbishment that would add a long time to its operations.
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Ontario planning to maintain Pickering nuclear energy station open till 2026
That information has now been adopted by plans to refurbish the whole website.
The federal government stated preliminary work by Ontario Energy Technology (OPG) advised the refurbishment may very well be accomplished by the mid-2030s.
“Ontario will follow a multi-phase approvals process to ensure the Pickering refurbishment project only proceeds if it is in the best interests of Ontario and its ratepayers,” the federal government stated in a press release.
The Society of United Professionals, a union representing greater than 9,000 power staff, welcomed the information.
“Today’s announcement protects good union jobs, and will help our province produce low-cost, emissions-free power as we electrify our economy into the future,” Michelle Johnston, the group’s president, stated. the union for greater than 9,000 Ontario skilled power sector staff.
“We’re glad to see the government choosing to refurbish our CANDU reactors, which support a strong, unionized, made-in-Canada supply chain.”
The nuclear security fee would additionally must approve the refurbishment.
By the Ford authorities’s personal admission, Ontario will turn into a power-hungry province over the course of this decade as new electrical automobile battery manufacturing vegetation, electrification of transportation networks and elevated inhabitants progress contribute to the demand.
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“We’re going to need a lot more electricity,” Smith stated at a information convention on Could 25, 2023.
Over the previous two years, the Ford authorities has rolled out a sequence of power effectivity and power creation bulletins. To fill the hole, the federal government permitted a mixture of electrical energy era to stabilize the provincial grid together with a small modular nuclear reactor, new battery storage amenities and extra pure gasoline amenities.
Officers just lately additionally introduced they have been returning to plans for renewable power choices after scrapping related contracts in 2018.
— with recordsdata from The Canadian Press
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