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My home internet has been acting up nothing is posting... hopefully this gets through!
Cheers, Andrew
4.25 billion to restart 2 nuclear reactors |
| Last updated Oct 17 2005 01:00 PM EDT CBC News |
| The McGuinty government has agreed to restart two more nuclear reactors in the province. The Liberals announced a $4.25-billion deal Monday morning to repair and refurbish four units at the Bruce A nuclear generating station near Kincardine. But the government's not paying for the deal. Bruce Power will pay for it by charging more to the consumer. The four nuclear reactors at Bruce A were shut down in the late nineties for safety reasons. Two have already been returned to service. Now, because of the looming electricity shortage, the government's agreed to get the other two up and running. Bruce Power has agreed to spend the $4.25 billion to refurbish units one and two, refurbish unit three when its life is up, and replace the steam generators on unit four. In return, it will be able to charge 6.3 cents a kilowatt hour for all of the energy Bruce A produces. NDP Leader Howard Hampton says that's a sweetheart deal. "Nulcear power was pegged at about 4.5 cents a kilowatt hour. This company's going to get over 6 cents a kilowatt hour. So they're going to get literally a 33-per-cent profit," Hampton says. But the new Energy minister, Donna Cansfield, says Hampton has got his numbers wrong. She says he's not including the cost of Hydro's stranded debt when he quotes the lower price. Cansfield says the consumer or the taxpayer won't be on the hook for cost-overruns, if they occur. "That will be born entirely by the Bruce people, and not by the people of Ontario," she says. The Energy minister had promised there'd be a full debate on whether there'd be more nuclear power in Ontario. But Hampton says Donna Cansfield has pre-empted part of that debate with her announcement on Monday. |