Canada Nuclear Update

As we reported on Monday, Dwight Duncan, energy minister for Ontario, announced a 20-year plan to upgrade the province's energy infrastructure yesterday, one that includes provisions to build new reactors and refurbish exisiting nuclear capacity, while investing an equal amount of money in renewable energy.

The plan is getting a positive reception. Here's the Toronto Star:

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan has developed a prudent blueprint for ensuring Ontarians will have an increasingly clean supply of power to meet their needs over the next 20 years. The plan is a mix of power sources --— nuclear, hydro, natural gas, wind --— that strikes the best long-term balance considering cost, reliability and environmental concerns.

Under the plan unveiled yesterday, the province has opted over the next 20 years to refurbish existing nuclear plants, build new reactors on those sites, double the amount of renewable power from sources such as hydroelectric and wind, and heavily promote conservation.

And from the London Free Press:

While details remain sketchy, the Ontario government appears to be taking a balanced, sensible approach to meeting the province's future energy needs.

A reliable energy supply is vital to Ontario's economy. And the massive disruption that can be caused in ordinary people's lives was made abundantly clear by the blackout of 2003.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan's plan calls for a broad mix, including increased nuclear power and a push for conservation -- with less nuclear and more conservation than expected.

And despite the fact that the plan relies on "more conservation than expected," all the usual suspects are lining up in opposition.

Stephen Aplin says he's ready for the debate:

Until now, the Ontario electricity debate has been long on politically correct platitudes about renewable and alternative forms of generation coupled with conservation, and short on credible plans for filling the ten-thousand-megawatt gap between electricity demand and supply. There has been almost no regard for actual, believable numbers -- either in terms of the amounts of electricity Ontarians need to continue living as an advanced, industrial society in a middle-latitude climate, or the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with electricity generation.

In such a void, anybody can say anything -- and they have. But now that the battle is well and truly joined, we'’ll see which arguments stand and which collapse from their own internal contradictions.

Keep your cool my friends, because the facts are on our side. Click here for a statement from Patrick Moore.

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