The NDP completed Darlington A in 1993, a decade late, for $14.4-billion, almost six times the initial estimates. Hydro then went bankrupt in what was called 'the biggest corporate financial meltdown in Canadian history.' Darlington A was one of the last nuclear reactors to be built in the western world...
[...]
Ontarians, in fact, thought they had stopped it in 1985 when they threw out the Tory government of the day in favour of David Peterson's Liberals, who had promised to stop Darlington. By 1985, Darlington was wildly late (its planned completion date had been 1983) and wildly over budget (the $3.5-billion that had then been spent exceeded the project's estimated $2.5-billion price tag of 1978). Rather than stop the bleeding, the Liberals instead voted to complete Darlington.
Ontarians again thought they had stopped Darlington in 1990, when they threw out the Liberals in favour of the New Democratic Party of Bob Rae, who had campaigned on a promise to impose a moratorium on nuclear power. By then, Darlington's costs had soared to $12.9-billion and was close to completion. The NDP completed Darlington A in 1993, a decade late, for $14.4-billion, almost six times the initial estimates. Hydro then went bankrupt in what was called "the biggest corporate financial meltdown in Canadian history."
Darlington A was one of the last nuclear reactors to be built in the western world -- Ontario was slower than most in recognizing the foolhardiness of relying on nuclear. Now Ontario is poised to become one of the first western jurisdictions to return to nuclear, despite Darlington's role in the province's demise -- Hydro's nuclear program cost the province its AAA credit rating and Ontarians are still paying off Hydro's stranded debt of $20-billion.
[...]
Nuclear's uncontrollable costs, in fact, have been a constant over its history in Ontario and they remain a constant elsewhere in the western world. France -- the only country to go full bore for nuclear -- has found nuclear to be so ruinously expensive that it's bringing its old oil-fired stations back into service, some of which were built in the 1960s.
In Finland, the first western country to have actually begun construction on a new nuclear plant in recent years, delays proved so serious that, two and a half years after the start of construction, the project had fallen behind schedule by more than two years. The project is already 50% over budget. Cost estimates for other nuclear plants that are being considered have soared even more.
Read the whole article here =>Recommend this Post
0 comments:
Post a Comment