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Nuclear power proposal slammed
Plan proposes
$40B in new Ontario stations Consultation process
described as a sham
Feb.
14, 2006. 01:00 AM
PETER GORRIE AND MIKE FUNSTON, STAFF REPORTERS
A
plan that recommends $40 billion worth of new nuclear power for Ontario was
slammed at public hearings last night in Toronto and Mississauga.
At the
Toronto meeting more than 250 people appeared just as angry about what they
described as a sham three-day consultation process that continues today and
tomorrow across the province.
In Mississauga, even before moderator John
Crane finished his opening remarks to about 150 people, Greenpeace
representative Dave Martin slammed the legitimacy of the process.
"We are
getting three days of consultation this week on 11 days' notice and we are
expected to produce comments off the cuff and we're being told this is good
public consultation. I don't think so," said Martin.
"The (pro-nuclear)
bias of the minister of energy is coming out loud and clear," said Kim Fry, who
has started a group called Mothers Against Nuclear.
Yesterday's public
hearings come on the heels of a report by the Ontario Power Authority that
recommended nuclear energy should continue to represent about half of the
province's electricity supply up to 2025.
Jeff Leal, parliamentary
assistant to Energy Minister Donna Cansfield, however, suggested last night that
the plan's hostile reception might delay a final decision.
Speaker after
speaker last night argued nuclear power is expensive, unreliable and dangerous
to the environment and human health.
But several representatives
of the nuclear industry extolled the virtues of nuclear power.
Nuclear
physicist Nathalie Gagnon demonstrated a model of a nuclear fuel bundle about
one metre long powered by eight tiny radioactive pellets.
She said it
could provide power to a home for 100 years without any air pollution.
She
urged people not to be afraid of nuclear power, adding people tend to associate
it with nuclear weapons and it's the not same thing.
The Ontario
Power Authority was created by the provincial Liberal government to plan for the
province's looming electricity crisis, which includes aging nuclear power
plants, a plan to shut down coal-powered generating plans and warnings that
downtown Toronto risks rolling blackouts in two years.
Other speakers
said the government has not only underestimated the potential of renewable
energy sources like solar and wind, but has also undermined those efforts with
its announcement last Friday of the low price cap on the electricity consumed by
industry.