Ontario is proceeding with a massive, multibillion-dollar refurbishment of four aging nuclear reactors at its Pickering power plant east of Toronto, according to two provincial government sources.
The decision will be formally unveiled by Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith at the facility in Pickering on Tuesday, a senior government source said.
Another government official said the province has approved a $2-billion budget for Ontario Power Generation, the plant’s owner, to complete the necessary engineering and design work and order crucial components, which can require years to manufacture.
Refurbishments under way at OPG’s Darlington nuclear plant in Clarington, and at Bruce Power’s station in Tiverton, have cost between $2-billion and more than $3-billion a reactor.
Mr. Smith received OPG’s report last summer, but his ministry rebuffed a request from this newspaper to release it under the province’s freedom of information legislation.
OPG has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which regulates the industry, for permission to operate them until late 2026.
The original article contains 434 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
For the record, the largest capacity reactor at Pickering, the 530MWe unit B5 produced 4,042,003MWh in its best year (2019, 87% capacity factor), roughly 300,000 MWh less than current solar installations did in 2023.
Wind and solar capacity has been growing in the vicinity of 11% a year. Nuclear hasn’t, as it peaked in 1993 at 15,800MWe, and has been stalled at 13,500 since 2012, when Gentilly 2 was shut down for the last time.
The cost of installed wind is averaging out to roughly $1300/kW globally on an equalized basis. The reactors at Vogtle, the last new-build reactors commissioned in North America, are currently sitting at approximately $13,000/kW.
The press release today was fucking disgusting. Dude took every chance he could to slander the precious government without any real consideration for their actions or explanation on why THEIR (Conservatives’) decision is the correct one…
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ontario is proceeding with a massive, multibillion-dollar refurbishment of four aging nuclear reactors at its Pickering power plant east of Toronto, according to two provincial government sources.
The decision will be formally unveiled by Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith at the facility in Pickering on Tuesday, a senior government source said.
Another government official said the province has approved a $2-billion budget for Ontario Power Generation, the plant’s owner, to complete the necessary engineering and design work and order crucial components, which can require years to manufacture.
Refurbishments under way at OPG’s Darlington nuclear plant in Clarington, and at Bruce Power’s station in Tiverton, have cost between $2-billion and more than $3-billion a reactor.
Mr. Smith received OPG’s report last summer, but his ministry rebuffed a request from this newspaper to release it under the province’s freedom of information legislation.
OPG has applied to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which regulates the industry, for permission to operate them until late 2026.
The original article contains 434 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is good to see.
Each of these four reactors at the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant generate more electricity in a year than all the solar farms in Canada combined.
We can’t build enough additional solar or wind capacity to replace them in any reasonable timeframe.
Total Hydro-electric for 2023 297,625,045MWh
Total nuclear MWh for 2023 70,143,731MWh
Total Wind MWh for 2023 30,464,472MWh
Total Solar MWh for 2023 4,327,641MWh
(Jan-Oct. Figures for Nov,Dec not available yet)
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=2510001501&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.1&cubeTimeFrame.startMonth=01&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2023&cubeTimeFrame.endMonth=12&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2023&referencePeriods=20230101%2C20231201
For the record, the largest capacity reactor at Pickering, the 530MWe unit B5 produced 4,042,003MWh in its best year (2019, 87% capacity factor), roughly 300,000 MWh less than current solar installations did in 2023.
Wind and solar capacity has been growing in the vicinity of 11% a year. Nuclear hasn’t, as it peaked in 1993 at 15,800MWe, and has been stalled at 13,500 since 2012, when Gentilly 2 was shut down for the last time.
The cost of installed wind is averaging out to roughly $1300/kW globally on an equalized basis. The reactors at Vogtle, the last new-build reactors commissioned in North America, are currently sitting at approximately $13,000/kW.
To be fair, Canada doesn’t build much solar. Most of our modern green energy is wind.
The press release today was fucking disgusting. Dude took every chance he could to slander the precious government without any real consideration for their actions or explanation on why THEIR (Conservatives’) decision is the correct one…