TORONTO - Canada's most populous province is showing no signs of backing down on plans to expand its fleet of nuclear reactors as an atomic crisis continues to unfold in tsunami-ravaged Japan.
Ontario's New Democrats, who have long opposed nuclear expansion, are urging Premier Dalton McGuinty to "reassess" his commitment to nuclear power amid new safety concerns and rising costs.
"I don't think that it's unwise to rethink a major commitment when we know that if things go wrong with nuclear power, they can go really wrong," said NDP critic Peter Tabuns.
"Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. It designed its reactors knowing the kinds of conditions it was going to face and still finds itself in a very dire situation where hundreds of thousands of people have had to be evacuated."
Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and fire ripped through the facility.
Switzerland, Germany and Lithuania have all put the brakes on their nuclear plans as the crisis in Japan escalates following Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.
But a spokesman for Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said the Liberal government remains committed to building two new units at Darlington nuclear station in Clarington, Ont.
"As you know, the government's long-term energy plan speaks to the need to replace some of our nuclear facilities over the coming decade," Andrew Block wrote in an email. "There will be a thorough environmental assessment of the proposal."
Three weeks of public hearings that form part of the five-year assessment process -- estimated to cost the province $40 million -- are slated to begin next week. Greenpeace Canada spokesman Shawn-Patrick Stensil said he's expecting a large turnout given the troubling images emerging from Japan.
"I think it's a wakeup call for the public and it's a huge public relations disaster for the nuclear industry," he said.
Obtaining all the licences required to build a new nuclear station can take between 10 to 15 years, according to Ontario Power Generation, the provincial utility that owns Ontario's three nuclear power plants.
Seismic activity, as well as natural disasters like flooding, tornadoes and freezing rain, are all considered during the process, said OPG spokeswoman Laurie Swami.
OPG even looked at whether the Darlington station, which sits on the north shore of Lake Ontario, could face a tsunami, she said.
"What we found was that was not a real potential issue in Lake Ontario, simply because the lakebed is so stable that you wouldn't have one of these large earthquakes that would have large displacements of the land, causing large displacements of the water," Swami said. "And we also have a fairly stable shoreline."
Bruce Power, which operates the provincially owned Bruce nuclear station on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, said the homegrown CANDU reactor design is also very different from the boiling-water reactors that Japan uses.
All water-based reactors are designed to protect against the loss of coolant in the event of an accident -- the worst-case scenario that Japan is grappling with now, said Bruce Power CEO Duncan Hawthorne.
"For the CANDU, in many ways, it's easier to achieve because a CANDU is really -- in simplest terms -- it's a little bit of fuel surrounded by an awful lot of water, whereas these other reactor designs are a lot of fuel surrounded by a little bit of water," said Hawthorne, a former engineer who saw nuclear rain fall in Scotland after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
"There's pros and cons to everyone's technology, but for this type of event, the CANDU design is definitely more stable."
The Ontario government announced it was forging ahead with new nuclear reactors in 2006, but has yet to sign a deal for the construction, largely because the ownership of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. remains in limbo.
The heavily subsidized agency's CANDU reactor business was put up for sale in 2009 and the federal government has yet to secure a buyer.
At least one energy expert says AECL's prospects have dropped even further now that Japan is facing a possible nuclear catastrophe, which may add further delays to Ontario's plans.
Japan's troubles could also drive up the cost of building new nuclear units with more stringent safety requirements, Tabuns said.
"It's entirely possible that it could lead to redesign around the world," he said. "But already, as we know from the price that was given for the Darlington rebuild at $26 billion, that price is far too rich for Ontarians right now."
Ontario currently depends on nuclear power for half of its electricity. The rest is generated through hydroelectric facilities, coal and natural gas fired plants, as well as renewable power projects such as wind turbines and solar panels.
The province has a total of three nuclear power facilities. Darlington has four operating units while the Pickering plant just east of Toronto has six. The Bruce facility in Tiverton has six units and plans to restart two others. Both Darlington and Pickering are operated by OPG.
Quebec also generates nuclear power from its Gentilly station near Becancour, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal, while New Brunswick has the Point Lepreau station.
The Ontario Liberals, who are facing an election Oct. 6, have launched a major push for wind and solar energy projects but remain committed to refurbishing the province's aging nuclear fleet.
Their long-term energy plan calls for $33 billion in investments by government and the private sector to build the two new reactors and refurbish 10 older units.
The McGuinty government is also under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fulfil a long-standing promise to shut down all dirty coal-fired generation by 2014, which makes the possibility of a nuclear-free Ontario in the near future rather remote.
The Opposition Conservatives also back nuclear power, an industry that supports about 70,000 jobs across the country.
Nuclear power saves about 90 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year compared to coal-fired generation, according to the Canadian Nuclear Association.
