Ontario is planning to push ahead with a complete renovation of Pickering Nuclear Power Station, scrapping previous plans to retire the decades-old facility.
Minister of Energy Todd Smith made the announcement on Tuesday morning, confirming plans the government will continue to rely on the power station for decades to come.
“With global business looking to expand in jurisdictions with reliable, affordable and clean electricity, a refurbished Pickering Nuclear Generating Station would help Ontario compete for and land more game-changing investments,” Smith said.
“The refurbishment of Pickering would create thousands of new jobs and help produce at least another 30 years of safe, reliable and clean electricity to power the next major international investment, the new homes we are building and industries as they grow and electrify.”
Smith had asked OPG in 2022 to study the feasibility of refurbishing the site.
The minister is announcing today that the refurbishment will proceed and that OPG plans on spending $2 billion on engineering and design work for the project expected to be completed in the mid-2030s.
Neither Smith nor OPG officials would give an estimate for how much the entire refurbishment will cost.
“It would be irresponsible at this point in time to put a number out there, because it’s this essential design and scoping and engineering work that is going to get us to the place where we can have a number,” Smith said.
OPG said a refurbishment at its Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is costing $12.8 billion and is on time and on budget.
Ken Hartwick, CEO of OPG, said the Darlington refurbishment as well as one at Bruce Power will help guide the Pickering life extension.
“We have learned a lot about what it takes to refurbish a nuclear station the right way with thousands of lessons learned from Darlington and Bruce Power that we will apply to Pickering,” Hartwick said.
Pickering alone is responsible for around 14 per cent of Ontario’s electricity.
The nuclear power plant — which has been operating since the 1980s — has become an increasingly key part of Ontario’s energy plans as the province faces a supply shortage in the 2020s and early 2030s.
In 2022, the government announced it would extend Pickering past its initially planned closure date to 2026 and said it was weighing plans for a long-term refurbishment that could add decades to its operations.
That news has now been followed by plans to refurbish the entire site.
The government said preliminary work by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) suggested the refurbishment could be completed by the mid-2030s.
“Ontario will follow a multi-phase approvals process to ensure the Pickering refurbishment project only proceeds if it is in the best interests of Ontario and its ratepayers,” the government said in a statement.
The Society of United Professionals, a union representing more than 9,000 energy workers, welcomed the news.
“Today’s announcement protects good union jobs, and will help our province produce low-cost, emissions-free power as we electrify our economy into the future,” Michelle Johnston, the group’s president, said. the union for more than 9,000 Ontario professional energy sector workers.
“We’re glad to see the government choosing to refurbish our CANDU reactors, which support a strong, unionized, made-in-Canada supply chain.”
The nuclear safety commission would also have to approve the refurbishment.
By the Ford government’s own admission, Ontario will become a power-hungry province over the course of this decade as new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants, electrification of transportation networks and increased population growth contribute to the demand.
“We’re going to need a lot more electricity,” Smith said at a news conference on May 25, 2023.
Over the past two years, the Ford government has rolled out a series of energy efficiency and energy creation announcements. To fill the gap, the government approved a mix of electricity generation to stabilize the provincial grid including a small modular nuclear reactor, new battery storage facilities and more natural gas facilities.
Officials recently also announced they were returning to plans for renewable energy options after scrapping similar contracts in 2018.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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