Energy Probe

No industry in history has held more promise, been more welcomed, received more favours and failed more spectacularly than the commercial nuclear power industry.

When U. S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a civilian nuclear program in the early 1950s, it was to universal acclaim. Not only would nuclear reactors be safe and provide electricity that was too cheap to meter, it would help redeem a technology that had unleashed horrors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Cost overruns, delays in building reactors are sapping a nuclear revival

In a throwback to its tumultuous past, nuclear power is teetering on the brink of renaissance or relapse, waffling between a return to its golden age and a slow demise.

Prime Minister Harper quipped last Fall that falling stock markets provided a good buying opportunity. Right now the opposite is true for Canadian nuclear. Now is the time for the government to sell, sell, sell; which is exactly what the government plans to do. The federal government plans to restructure and sell off parts of the federal Crown Corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).

Nuclear power has been an economic failure, despite being larded with subsidies and shorn of liabilities that face its competitors. Oil price hikes have not made it economic, either. 

The U.S. doesn’t have a market for the nighttime power surplus that nuclear inevitably produces.

"If France can produce 80% of its electricity with nuclear power, why can’t we?,” asks U.S. presidential candidate John McCain. Nuclear power is a cornerstone of Senator McCain’s plan to combat climate change, which he is unveiling this week.

Good morning. I have some good news for you this morning. The good news is that Ontario has an easy and painless way out of the energy fix that we're in. I have some bad news for you, too. Our government doesn't know it, and, I am certain, neither do most of you in this room. Because of what you don't know, we face a future in which we all may freeze in the dark.

Nuclear runs all night, can't be ramped up in day.

After scores of bankruptcies and bailouts, many if not most energy analysts recognize nuclear electricity for what it has been: the single biggest business disaster in history.

But nuclear power's failings extend beyond the red ink on the balance sheets to the limitations in the technology. The nuclear reactor, though efficient in medical and military applications, is ill-suited for the production of electricity in a sophisticated power market of diverse customers with diverse needs

The only private operator of nuclear plants in Canada, Bruce Power LP, plans to bring nuclear power to Alberta, saying Thursday it hopes to build a $10-billion-plus generating complex near Peace River.

But experts on nuclear power were quick to note that even though nuclear generation has massive capital costs, it has a dismal track record at meeting cost estimates and construction schedules and that, once operational, the reliability of nuclear stations has been spotty, at best.

Two Canadian mega-projects in works, but critics still battling

CALGARY — With two nuclear mega-projects planned for Alberta and Ontario, the sector is showing signs of growth for the first time in decades, but critics warn those sorts of major projects are fraught with risk.

On Thursday, Ontario power firm Bruce Power said it wants to build Western Canada’s first nuclear power plant near Peace River, Alta. The proposed $10-billion facility could produce enough electricity to power two million homes by 2017.

MR.RUBIN: Madam Chair, my comments deal with issues concerning nuclear power, and we offer them to urge this Board to do two things: To stipulate and construe the nuclear issues as broadly as possible; and, in particular, to seek mechanisms to ensure that Ontario ratepayers and taxpayers are protected from the peculiar risks presented by nuclear power.

Stung by criticism that it is being left on the sidelines of a global nuclear resurgence, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) yesterday trumpeted an agreement with China and Argentina to co-operate in building new Candu reactors in the three countries.

AECL and Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA recently agreed to begin commercial negotiations for the construction of a Candu 6 reactor, which would be similar in design to the most recent ones constructed at China's Qinshan project.

An American professor and publisher of an energy newsletter is arguing that Canada should take advantage of the "stupidity of Americans" by building nuclear power plants to supply a growing need south of the border.

Howard Hayden, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Connecticut and publisher of The Energy Advocate, said Friday that a large NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) contingent in the United States is preventing the construction of new nuclear power generation. "It's the stupidity of Americans,'' Hayden said.

Areva of France, the world's biggest nuclear energy company, is keen to invest in or form a partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. but says it hasn't got a clue whether Ottawa is ready to deal.

Toronto: The partial sale of Canada's Crown-owned nuclear giant is the source of speculation once again.

Following a published report which said Ottawa is in advanced negotiations to sell part of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to General Electric, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Department confirmed Ottawa is in "discussions" to sell part the Crown corporation.

The Ontario government had several objectives in entering into a sole-source contract with Bruce Power to buy electricity from Bruce's nuclear expansion. One of them, detailed in the Auditor-General's report, was to conceal the consumer impacts.

Thanks to the report by Ontario Auditor General James McCarter, issued on the afternoon before the long weekend by the Ontario government, Ontario's electricity ratepayers are much closer to understanding what electricity from the Bruce A nuclear refurbishment will cost. The bottom line: The McGuinty government signed a disastrous deal in deciding to resurrect nuclear plants that had no cost justification.

Ontarians would have saved $1.5 billion on their hydro bills over the next 25 years had the government negotiated a smarter deal to refurbish the Bruce Power nuclear station, the provincial auditor general says.

A review also found the government had "only partial success" in reaching its goal of protecting electricity ratepayers from cost overruns that have plagued past nuclear projects.

Canada's minister of natural resources was cagey yesterday when asked if the federal government is prepared to share the financial risk of building new Candu nuclear reactors in Ontario.

He did say, however, that federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. will have to compete on its own merits if it hopes to sell reactors in the province.

"AECL is going to have to compete," said Gary Lunn, speaking to reporters yesterday after giving a speech at the Economic Club of Toronto.

Energy Probe has released a new study examining federal subsidies to Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL). According to Probe, since its inception in 1952, subsidies to AECL account for CAD74.5 bln of today"s federal debt. Further, Probe contends that had those subsidies been instead invested in the Canadian economy, their value today would be CAD194.6 bln, roughly equivalent to 11.5% of the market cap of the TSX.

Dear Friend:

The federal government, and three provincial governments, are about to sink billions more dollars into another attempt to salvage the nuclear industry, the country's least economic energy industry – and its most dangerous.

Last month, New Brunswick discovered that its nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau had cracks in its main steam pipe. Cracks in the same piece of equipment at a reactor in Japan just months before had led to an accident that boiled alive four workers and severely scalded seven others.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) has cost federal taxpayers an estimated $17-billion in failed attempts to develop commercially viable nuclear reactors. Even the sales that AECL has made have proven to be wildly unprofitable, going back a generation to its perplexing reactor sale to Argentina, when AECL agreed to price its contract in pesos. Today, the federal Crown corporation is poised to blow more billions.

Toronto: Ontario Power Generation's habitual cost overruns on nuclear power plant refurbishment projects are continuing under the Liberals, OPG confirmed yesterday in third-quarter financial results that show efforts to upgrade a second unit at the Pickering A station are as much as $100-million over budget.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan allowed that he is "concerned" by the projected overrun, which will see the price tag for retrofitting Pickering A's Unit 1 reactor increase by between $75-million and $100-million.

Toronto: The perils of Pickering returned to haunt the Ontario government Monday as Ontario Power Generation warned that its efforts to restore another of the problem-prone nuclear plant's reactors could end up costing $1 billion.

When it was announced in July, the project to restart the mothballed Unit 1 reactor was supposed to cost $900 million, a budget that included a $65-million contingency fund that officials now say is already down to $20 million.

Critics point to Bruce's repair needs. Power companies say plant is needed.

Ontario's decision to open negotiations on restarting two idle nuclear reactors is getting a mixed reception.

Two watchdog groups condemned the move, but the lobby group for the province's generating companies said the move is an inevitable part of securing a supply of electricity.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan has hired David Santangeli to advise the province on negotiations with Bruce Power, which operates six units at the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine.

More than double earlier estimate
Reactors worse off than expected

Ontario Power Generation Inc. will have to spend up to $250 million, more than double earlier estimate, to install backup generators at its limping Pickering B nuclear generating station.

Inspections have also shown the station's reactors are in worse condition than previously thought, forcing the company to do more inspections and to advance and lengthen planned shutdowns.

We have learned that the federal government has quietly begun giving its friends in the nuclear industry new access to the public purse, in order to fund plans for massive nuclear power growth.

Toronto: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's only domestic project for new reactors is running $160-million over budget and four years behind schedule even as the company is pushing to sell the Ontario government advanced nuclear power plants worth billions of dollars.

MDS Nordion, the firm that hired AECL to design and construct two reactors to produce radioisotopes at Chalk River, has signalled it expects the federal Crown corporation to foot the bill for at least some of the project's skyrocketing costs.

Vancouver: Uranium producer Cameco Corp. has rolled into the U.S. electricity market by bidding $333-million (U.S.) for a 25.2-per-cent stake in a Texas nuclear power plant, the first step in what it hopes will become a substantial U.S. presence.

"This acquisition will give us a better understanding for the light-water reactors that are common in the United States," Cameco president and chief executive officer Jerry Grandey said in a conference call on Monday.

Work on two units of the Pickering A nuclear station has been suspended, according to a message sent to staff of the plant, owned by Ontario Power Generation Inc.

The problem-plagued project to restart Pickering A is already three years behind schedule and billions over budget. Only one of the plant's four reactors, Unit 4, is producing power.

Work has been under way at Pickering A since 1998. The project received approval from OPG's board of directors in 1999.

Critics of nuclear power said a $12 billion proposal by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to build eight new nuclear reactors in Ontario to generate electricity has little credibility, given the nuclear industry's track record.

But Energy Minister Dwight Duncan says he'll look at the nuclear option, along with all other solutions to the province's electricity issues.

"For $12 billion, a lot of people have solutions to our problems," Duncan said in an interview.

Toronto: Rebuilding four ageing reactors at the Pickering nuclear generating station will cost as much as $3-billion more than originally expected and take five years longer than planned, a report released yesterday states.

"This is an affront to the people of Ontario," said Dwight Duncan, the provincial energy minister. "It's a horrible mess."

the Bitor subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA is negotiating with its foreign clients to increase the price of orimulsion by about 50% to US$45 a ton, a Bitor source told

Electricity prices in Ontario skyrocketed briefly after a major generator, possibly another nuclear unit, was unexpectedly shut down yesterday morning.

The shutdown, coming on top of ongoing problems at Ontario's Pickering and Bruce nuclear power plants, raises concerns about how prepared the province is to meet peak demand in the winter months.

An idled reactor at Pickering's nuclear complex is now running at 70 per cent capacity and will produce full power by the end of the month, Ontario Power Generation Inc. says.

Unit four was producing power yesterday, generating about 360 megawatts for the province's electricity grid, OPG spokesperson John Earl said.

"We are now just in the last stage of commissioning, or testing, bringing the unit back up to full power where it is providing reliable electricity to the Ontario grid," Earl said.

TORONTO -- A public inquiry is needed to find out why a nuclear power station being rebuilt east of Toronto is $1 billion over budget and still months from getting back online, Energy Probe said Wednesday.

"This is out of control," Tom Adams, head of the consumer and environmental group, said of the rebuild of the Pickering A plant on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Energy Probe has long been critical of nuclear power, arguing that it's too costly and unreliable.

The cost of bringing the troubled Pickering A nuclear generating station back online has ballooned to $2.5 billion - almost twice its original projected price tag, the chief of Ontario Power Generation Inc. said yesterday.

And it will take a year longer than forecast to finish the project.

The news prompted Energy Minister John Baird to warn that part of the project might be scrapped - despite Ontario's electricity shortage.

"I think Ontario has now got a risk of blackout, possibly as early as this winter," said Tom Adams, executive director of the industry watchdog group, "but next summer looks very dicey as well."

Adams was reacting in part to news the start-up of the first of four Pickering A nuclear reactor units, expected by year's end, will be delayed by as much as eight months. The four units, out of service since 1997 because of safety and reliability concerns, are considered a key part of Ontario's power system.

Mumbai -- The Cirus nuclear research reactor at the BARC has been reborn. The refurbishment of the reactor, which is nearly 40 years old, was completed recently after approximately five years, BARC's reactor group director S.K. Sharma said.

Systems are now being tested and the reactor is likely to be formally recommissioned by the end of this month. The reactor will remain operational for the next 15 years to 20 years.

Export Development Canada (EDC) is negotiating with France’s Société Générale, a private bank, over support for the Cernavoda 2 nuclear plant in Romania. The plant is a Canadian Candu 600 MW reactor which Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. is building in the country. Construction is reportedly about 50 percent complete, but Romania needs another $600 million to finish the plant.

KARACHI -- In an effort to augment its nuclear power capacity, Pakistan is set to add two more units to its existing nuclear power plants.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is working on a plan to set up one unit each at its nuclear power plants at Karachi and Mianwali in Punjab, commission's chairman Pervez Butt said on Thursday.

The delay in Ontario Power Generation Inc.'s efforts to bring its troubled Pickering A nuclear plant back into production could have an impact on the supply, reliability and price of hydro in the province, industry watchers say.

Toronto: Leading energy critic Energy Probe has submitted a formal complaint to the federal government over a $390 million loan by Ottawa's Export Development Corporation (EDC) to the Cernavoda-2 nuclear reactor project by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited in Romania. The project was begun as far back as 1980 under the dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, and bears earlier criticisms of forced labour, defective materials and give-away financial arrangements. The site was abandoned in 1989 after a national revolt ousted President Ceausescu.

OTTAWA · Herb Dhaliwal, the federal Minister of Natural Resources, said yesterday a review is underway to determine whether Canadian taxpayers should keep subsidizing the CANDU reactor sales program to the tune of $100-million a year. Mr. Dhaliwal, only hours after taking over the portfolio, said a report will soon be presented to Cabinet to determine whether there are sufficient prospects for future sales of the reactor.

TORONTO - Ontario's multibillion-dollar effort to refurbish ailing nuclear plants is running years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, Southam News has learned.

Restarting the four mothballed nuclear reactors that make up the Pickering A unit will cost $1.5 billion, $400 million more than previously estimated, and take at least a year longer than forecast.

NO TO EURATOM LOAN FOR CERNAVODA II

Brussels, Rome: (Dec.12th 2001): Today a large international coalition of ca. 35 environmental organizations started the campaign "Stop Euratom loan for Cernavoda II".

Cernavoda II would be the second reactor of the only nuclear power plant in Romania. The Italian/Canadian consortium AECL Canada and ANSALDO is seeking to get a EURATOM loan from the European Commission. This second reactor is not needed for covering electricity demand in Romania and is only an increase of nuclear risk.

AECL cleared to bid for U.K. nuclear stations   by John Spears

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has been given a shot at bidding for 10 new nuclear power stations in Britain.

British Energy signed an agreement yesterday with AECL to assess the firm's technology.

But there's no guarantee that British Energy PLC will ever build the new nuclear stations, let alone choose AECL's design.

British Energy is also looking at reactors built by Westinghouse, if its nuclear expansion proposals bear fruit.

There's no way another nuclear power plant will be built in Ontario, a Sierra Club of Canada official vowed yesterday after Bruce Power's chairperson hinted one was in the works.

"If they ever try to site another reactor anywhere in Canada . . . they'll have a huge fight on their hands and won't be able to build it," John Bennett said yesterday.

He was reacting to a speech in which Bruce Power chairperson Robin Jeffrey spoke of perhaps building another nuclear plant in the province.

The situation in Canada under our Nuclear Liability Act is very significantly worse than the situation in the United States under Price-Anderson. Specifically, Canadian nuclear accident victims can count on $75-million total compensation, while Americans can count on US$9.09-billion. For every dollar U.S. victims could get, we get much less than a penny. And U.S. coverage is enough to completely cover many (though surely not all) serious accidents. In addition, the shared liability aspect of Price-Anderson coverage, which has no Canadian counterpart, gives all U.S.

Brussels, 26th March: Friends of the Earth today released a leaked document prepared by the Commission which is destined to eventually be presented to Finance Ministers to sanction a subsidy for the nuclear power industry. The paper asks for 2 billion Euro for loans to enable more nuclear power plants to be built in Member States, Accession countries and the former Soviet Union.

Fredericton - Environmentalists are turning up the heat in New Brunswick to head off a possible multimillion-dollar overhaul of the aging Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, Atlantic Canada's only nuclear reactor.

"We're urging New Brunswickers to tell Premier Bernard Lord they want a 'do not resuscitate order' posted on the Lepreau plant," David Coon of the New Brunswick Conservation Council, an environmental watchdog, said Monday.

Dear Friend:

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said it clearly this summer: "The world is abandoning nuclear power." The next day, he announced that Turkey would not be buying two Canadian Candu reactors - or any other kind - and would instead pursue energy conservation, natural gas, and renewables. Ecevit also turned down the sweetheart $1.5 billion loan that Ottawa had already offered him, out of Canadian taxpayers' money.

For decades, nuclear power has been a promising industry. First, it promised electricity too cheap to meter, and nuclear-powered cars and airplanes. Later, it promised safe, reliable and economic electricity. Today, those promises are hard to make with a straight face, and even harder to keep: More than one-third of Canada's billion-dollar Candu reactors have stopped producing any electricity (or income), and the unsupportable debt created by Candu reactors has far surpassed $10-billion, not including the additional nuclear billions in the federal debt.

For decades, nuclear power has been a promising industry. First, it promised electricity too cheap to meter, and nuclear-powered cars and airplanes. Later, it promised safe, reliable and economic electricity. Today, those promises are hard to make with a straight face, and even harder to keep: More than one-third of Canada's billion-dollar Candu reactors have stopped producing any electricity (or income), and the unsupportable debt created by Candu reactors has far surpassed $10-billion, not including the additional nuclear billions in the federal debt.

Like me, you can probably remember when the economics of the CANDU nuclear reactor were debatable – when many intelligent, honest people believed that nuclear power was cheap, or at least affordable. Those times are long gone.

Consider Ontario Hydro, the world's largest customer of CANDU reactors with 20. It amassed an unrepayable or "stranded" debt of $23.3 billion by the time it was broken into smaller companies a few months ago. The CANDU is responsible for most, if not all, of this enormous shortfall.

Summary

Twenty-five years ago, the former Ceaucescu regime had plans for 15 to 20 CANDU reactors. However, forced labour was used on the Cernavoda nuclear station, and faulty construction and manufacturing were widespread. After Ceaucescu was deposed in 1989, much of the nuclear infrastructure in Romania was dissolved, and only one reactor was completed. The first CANDU reactor at Cernavoda went into operation in December 1996 -- about 20 years after the first agreement between Canada and Romania was signed.

Canada's nuclear industry risks running short of cash for the $11-billion job of disposing of its nuclear waste, a federal cabinet memo says.

The memo warns the federal government not to set up its own agency to manage the waste, because the government itself could then get stuck with the bill, or with the waste itself.

Instead, the memo written in October warns, the federal government should leave industry to deal with the radioactive waste problem itself, under government rules.

“My train reached the Danube at Cernavoda, a name that sounds ominously similar to Chernobyl. Here, in one of the world’s most unstable earthquake zones, Ceausescu had decided to build Romania’s first power station.”

The Canadian Press / Critics of Canada's nuclear industry say the sale of Candu reactors, such as the one above, to foreign countries does more harm than good to Canadians because such sales are heavily subsidized by Canada.

Ontario’s CANDUs are growing old - and the four venerable A units at
Pickering and three more at the Bruce generating station on the shores
of Lake Huron, all of which Ontario Hydro has decided to mothball, may
never resume operation.

Problems have plagued Ontario's nuclear program

CANDU, Canada's much-touted nuclear power generator, has long been advertised as the best in the world. But it has fallen on hard times in Ontario.

Ontario Hydro, whose nuclear program has been plagued by leaks, malfunctions and management problems, has decided to cut its losses and close the oldest seven of its nuclear generators - about one-third of its nuclear power-producing capacity - likely for good.

TORONTO—

On a trade tour last month, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien gave Thai, Korean, and Filipino officials a familiar pitch: Buy Canadian nuclear power plants - the world's safest and most efficient.

For decades CANDU (Canadian Deuterium Uranium), the world's only commercial heavy-water nuclear reactor, has been the pride of Canada's nuclear industry.

Introduction

Just imagine that, against all calculated odds, a fairly serious accident occurs at one of Ontario Hydro's nuclear power generators at Pickering. Radioactive contamination is released and everyone living or working within a 15 km radius is ordered to evacuate. The affected area includes all of Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, plus the east end of Scarborough.

The nuclear industry greets almost any question about a nuclear accident with the quick assurance that the chances of such a mishap are so small as to be infinitesimal.

But companies that manufacture parts for nuclear-power plants will not sell their equipment to plant operators unless they are granted immunity from lawsuits over damages that could result from an accident.

The accident at Chernobyl pointed out very clearly that accidents at nuclear power plants can cause immeasurable damagThe accident at Chernobyl pointed out very clearly that accidents at nuclear power plants can cause immeasurable damage to the environment. How, and to what extent, is this kind of damage compensated?

The Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout calls on Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to stop the sale of CANDU reactors to China. China is an international outlaw in its nuclear policies, as well as in its abysmal record of human rights abuses. Selling nuclear reactors to China places Canada in an indefensible moral, political and environmental position. Here are CNP's top ten reasons for Jean Chrétien and his team to call off the sale: