Nuclear power costly

Ottawa Citizen
August 29, 2011
Jack Gibbons

Nuclear power costly 

Re: The NDP's pie-in-the-sky energy policy, Aug. 22 Despite Paul Tuns' assertions, reinvesting in nuclear power is not a cost-effective option to meet Ontario's future electricity needs.

The nuclear industry always lowballs their cost estimates, but they never keep their promises. Every nuclear project in Ontario's history has gone massively over budget - on average by 2.5 times. And it's the province's hard working families that end up paying the bills.

Fortunately, we have plenty of lower cost options to keep the lights on. The cost of new nuclear would be 50 per cent more than the cost of wind power, triple the cost of water power imports from Quebec or natural gas-fired generation, and five times more than what we are paying our manufacturers to increase their energy efficiency.

It's time to put consumers and taxpayers first. No more blank cheques for the nuclear industry.

Jack Gibbons, Chair, Ontario Clean Air Alliance, Toronto