'Very good opportunities for nuclear,' says Lunn

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

"You either believe in reducing greenhouse gases or you don't," according to Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn. Speaking at the Economics Club of Toronto, he said, "We shouldn't be afraid to look at all of the potential energy options. We need clean, reliable, affordable energy to ensure that we have our economic growth… I think there are some very, very good opportunities for nuclear in the future and we're not afraid to talk about them."

"It's clean, it produces zero emissions, it produces no greenhouse gases and we know that Ontario has been using nuclear energy for over 40 years," he said. "As a nation of energy consumers we must be prepared to have an open discussion about nuclear power."

"At the end of the day it will be up to the provinces to decide on their energy mixes but we will be there to support them," Lunn stressed. However, he did not elaborate on what incentives the Canadian government might offer to make the nuclear option more attractive.

He reported that the government will soon announce a comprehensive plan to deal with radioactive waste from the country's nuclear power plants. The plan, he suggested, could allay environmentalists' main criticisms of nuclear power. Lunn said he is "very, very impressed" by what he saw of the nuclear industry's current facilities to deal with waste, but added the government wants to further improve that system.

"There’ll be more specifics on the exact storage, where we put the permanent storage of nuclear waste, but you're going to have to wait," he added.

In June 2006, the Ontario government confirmed that new nuclear capacity will be an important part of its plan to tackle looming electricity shortages. It directed the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to proceed with its plan to overhaul the province's generating capacity, ensuring reliability of supply with stable prices. This requires maintaining nuclear capacity of 14,000 MWe. Some C$40 billion is expected to be spent on nuclear plant, including probably two new reactors, among 24,000 MWe of new and replacement capacity overall.

Meanwhile, due to revised forecasts of energy demand, with summer peak loads now 3000 MWe higher, the Ontario government delayed indefinitely the shutdown of two coal-fired power plants at Lambton and Nanticoke. These were originally - in 2003 - pledged to close in 2007, but this was extended to 2009, and now is uncertain. The plants, of 1975 and 3920 MWe respectively, comprise one fifth of the province's 30 GWe capacity, much of which is old.

Further information

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)

WNA's Canada's Uranium Production & Nuclear Power information paper

WNN: Canada announces clean energy initiative