The Pickering Nuclear Station is one of the oldest nuclear plants in the world. It has a long history of accidents and safety concerns and is now well past its official retirement age. It is also surrounded by more people — 2.2 million — than any other nuclear plant in North America. If a Fukushima-scale accident happened at the Pickering Nuclear Station, more than 650,000 people could lose their homes and have to be evacuated for 30-100 years. Tens of thousands of GTA residents could develop cancers.
The Pickering Plant is also a storehouse for an enormous amount of radioactive waste—more than 15 million kilograms of deadly spent fuel. The more than 760,000 spent fuel bundles stored at Pickering laid end to end would stretch from Kingston to St. Catharines. As well as dangerous radioactive elements, these bundles include enough plutonium to build more than 11,000 nuclear warheads.
Fortunately, we have plenty of safer and lower cost alternatives to continuing to run this old nuclear station, including getting power from Quebec. Power from Quebec would cost roughly half as much as power from Pickering, making it possible to lower our power bills while removing eight very old reactors from our largest urban area.
Right now, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) says it will close the plant in 2024 and lay off most of its workforce while leaving the plant sitting on the Pickering waterfront untouched for the following 30 years. A better plan is to adopt the international best practice of immediate decommissioning. If we close the plant in 2018 and immediately start dismantling it, we can create 32,000 person years of employment and revitalize a big piece of the Pickering waterfront for the enjoyment of the community.
Take a look at what Mississauga is doing with the site of the old Lakeview Coal Plant.
Sign the petition below calling for Pickering’s closure when its licence expires this year and for its waste to be moved into attack-resistant, reinforced-concrete vaults.
12,407 | Roger Crombie | Toronto | Nov 22, 2019 | |
12,406 | Nena Fotiadis | Brampton | Nov 18, 2019 | |
12,405 | Gordon Belray | Toronto | Nov 18, 2019 | |
12,404 | Jim Macaulay | Pickering | Nov 07, 2019 | |
12,403 | Erosha Amendra | Pickering | Nov 07, 2019 | |
12,402 | Ian E. Brown | Scarborough | Sep 28, 2019 | |
12,401 | Pankaj Kisnadwala | Sharjah | Sep 10, 2019 | |
12,400 | Panna Kisnadwala | Toronto | Sep 10, 2019 | |
12,399 | Ishita Kisnadwala | Toronto | Sep 10, 2019 | |
12,398 | Stavan Shah | Toronto | Sep 10, 2019 | |
12,397 | Devashree Kisnadwala | Toronto | Sep 10, 2019 | |
12,396 | Manickam Alexander | Ajax | Aug 30, 2019 | |
12,395 | Atul Dutta | Whitby | Aug 24, 2019 | |
12,394 | Bill Boyd | Scarborough | Aug 17, 2019 | |
12,393 | Kingshuk Dutta | Toronto | Aug 13, 2019 | |
12,392 | yvonne koo | scarborough | Aug 13, 2019 | |
12,391 | Raji M | Richmond Hill | Aug 12, 2019 | |
12,390 | Sambhavi B | Toronto | Jul 28, 2019 | |
12,389 | David Wood | Mildmay | Jul 25, 2019 | |
12,388 | Karla Orantes | Toronto | Jul 12, 2019 | |
12,387 | Neil Adamson | Midhurst | Jul 11, 2019 | |
12,386 | Koashy Rajan | Ajax | Jul 09, 2019 | |
12,385 | Jith Ram | Brampton | Jul 09, 2019 | |
12,384 | Allen Thomas | Toronto | Jul 09, 2019 | |
12,383 | Reeja Shaji | Thiruvananthapuram | Jul 09, 2019 | |
12,382 | Tess Thomas | Brooklin | Jul 09, 2019 | |
12,381 | Hela Sahnoun | Ajax | Jun 23, 2019 | |
12,380 | Hagan TURAN | Toronto | Jun 23, 2019 | |
12,379 | eva chen | Jun 18, 2019 | ||
12,378 | ANJAL BAIJU PADAYATTIL | OSHAWA | Jun 18, 2019 | |
12,377 | Kevin Hatt | New York | Jun 18, 2019 | |
12,376 | Ian Muggridge | Toronto | Jun 18, 2019 | |
12,375 | Sharmila Subramanian | Scarborough | Jun 11, 2019 | |
12,374 | Sherry Schofield | Ilderton | Jun 10, 2019 | |
12,373 | Gary Harrison | OSHAWA | Jun 07, 2019 | |
12,372 | Carrie Harrison | Courtice | Jun 07, 2019 | |
12,371 | Abhaya Ganesan | Scarborough | Jun 06, 2019 | |
12,370 | Rosemary Whyte | Ajax | Jun 06, 2019 | |
12,369 | Aarpm Brighton | Ajax | Jun 05, 2019 | |
12,368 | Daisy Collins | Kitchener | Jun 02, 2019 | |
12,367 | Paul Di Biase | Vaughan | Jun 02, 2019 | |
12,366 | Chanjal Baiju Padayattil | Oshawa | May 31, 2019 | |
12,365 | Thomas Johnson | Kochi | May 31, 2019 | |
12,364 | Matthew Nievera | Pickering | May 31, 2019 | |
12,363 | RYAN XUE | MARKHAM | May 25, 2019 | |
12,362 | Sandeep Kumar | Pickering | May 22, 2019 | |
12,361 | Nader Awas | May 14, 2019 | ||
12,360 | Anindita Bir | May 08, 2019 | ||
12,359 | Eszter BARCSANICS | NORTH YORK | May 08, 2019 | |
12,358 | Kevin Toste | Pickering | Apr 24, 2019 | |
12,357 | Sandra Lau | Thornhill | Apr 16, 2019 | |
12,356 | Nicole Herdman | Pickering | Apr 15, 2019 | |
12,355 | Lai Cheng | Markham | Apr 13, 2019 | |
12,354 | Yiu ki Poon | Markham | Apr 13, 2019 | |
12,353 | Patrick Poon | Markham | Apr 13, 2019 | |
12,352 | Jared James | Toronto | Apr 09, 2019 | |
12,351 | Rod Morris | Niagara Falls | Apr 08, 2019 | |
12,350 | Darlene McClelland | Markham | Apr 07, 2019 | |
12,349 | Allyson Gubb | Markham | Apr 03, 2019 | |
12,348 | Veronica Ramirez | Mississauga | Mar 31, 2019 | |
12,347 | Winnie Lau | Markham | Mar 29, 2019 | |
12,346 | Josephine Dunn | Toronto | Mar 26, 2019 | |
12,345 | Vishnu Awasthi | Pickering | Mar 25, 2019 | |
12,344 | Nina Nakajima | Mar 25, 2019 | ||
12,343 | Nicholas Sirmalis | Markham | Mar 11, 2019 | |
12,342 | Kevin Noble | Pickering | Mar 07, 2019 | |
12,341 | Megan Cramer | Pickering | Mar 07, 2019 | |
12,340 | Kevin Bernacer | Toronto | Mar 05, 2019 | |
12,339 | Keyanne Matthews | Toronto | Mar 04, 2019 | |
12,338 | Serina Zi | Toronto | Feb 28, 2019 | |
12,337 | Brittany Tuttle | Pickering | Feb 27, 2019 | |
12,336 | elissa Southon | innisfil | Feb 24, 2019 | |
12,335 | Eden Yirga | Toronto | Feb 23, 2019 | |
12,334 | Sudhir Mamidipalli | ajax | Feb 11, 2019 | |
12,333 | John Currie | Pickering | Feb 11, 2019 | |
12,332 | Lillian Robinson | Ottawa | Feb 07, 2019 | |
12,331 | peggy lathwell | toronto | Feb 06, 2019 | |
12,330 | Frances Bernard | EDMONTON | Feb 06, 2019 | |
12,329 | Cristina Marsiglia | Toronto | Feb 02, 2019 | |
12,328 | Elizabeth Zmijak | Toronto | Feb 01, 2019 | |
12,327 | Vinod Chopra | Brampton | Jan 31, 2019 | |
12,326 | Sangeet goyal | North York | Jan 31, 2019 | |
12,325 | Douglas Richardson | toronto | Jan 20, 2019 | |
12,324 | Barry Cockerill | Woodlawn | Jan 20, 2019 | |
12,323 | Marlee Kelly | Courtice | Jan 19, 2019 | |
12,322 | Hugh Kelly | Jan 19, 2019 | ||
12,321 | Olga Fokina | Toronto | Jan 18, 2019 | |
12,320 | Gavin Fairlie | toronto | Jan 15, 2019 | |
12,319 | Sofian Elkeurti | Whitby | Jan 15, 2019 | |
12,318 | Gilles Chertier | Chaillac | Jan 13, 2019 | |
12,317 | Laurienne Bernard | GIÈRES | Jan 13, 2019 | |
12,316 | Rupal Patel | Mississauga | Jan 09, 2019 | |
12,315 | Janany Prasanthan | Ajax | Jan 08, 2019 | |
12,314 | Manoj Bhambi | Ajax | Jan 08, 2019 | |
12,313 | Abiramy Tharmendra | Ajax | Jan 08, 2019 | |
12,312 | Maurice Poulin | Kaministiquia | Jan 05, 2019 | |
12,311 | JIGNESH SHAH | Scarborough | Dec 29, 2018 | |
12,310 | Michelle Kaczmarek | Toronto | Dec 28, 2018 | |
12,309 | Leigh Gaudette | Sudbury | Dec 25, 2018 | |
12,308 | Hong Wang | Scarborough | Dec 22, 2018 | |
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