Shut down aging and dangerous Pickering Nuclear Station

Angela Bischoff—

Ontario Power Generation wants to push the Pickering Nuclear Station — located in the heart of the eastern Greater Toronto Area — past its best-before date. This plant was designed to operate for 40 years.  But despite a long history of breakdowns, safety issues and poor performance, OPG wants to keep the plant operating beyond its original limits.

Hydro Quebec, faced with the exact same situation with its aging Gentilly reactors, decided that it was simply too expensive and too risky to keep operating its plant.

If you think Ontario should do the same, sign our petition urging Premier Kathleen Wynne to close this dangerous plant in 2014.

While OPG has received permission from the always-compliant Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to continue operating Pickering for another five years, it is the really up to the provincial government of Kathleen Wynne to decide if the risks are reasonable and necessary.

Frankly, it is hard to see a case for taking a chance on these 40-year-old reactors. Electricity demand in Ontario has been dropping steadily since 2005 and the Independent Electricity System Operator says it is only likely to increase by a tiny 1% between now and 2022 despite population and economic growth. We’ve even recently been paying nuclear power companies to NOT produce power!

We don’t need the power from Pickering and we especially don’t need a radioactive leak or nuclear accident in the heart of the country’s densest urban area or within the drinking water supply for 9 million people.

The good news is that instead of paying OPG to continue operating out-of-date reactors, we can shut Pickering down and save Ontarians money.  This high cost plant is doing us no favours – inflating our hydro bills by around 5% per year.  It’s time to trade in this old clunker for newer and safer options like improved energy efficiency, Quebec hydro imports and Ontario green power.