Control the Change

I know this one has been coming for a number of weeks; but it still annoys me. The Ontario Provincial government has decided the new site for the forthcoming nuclear reactors for the province will be built at the current Darlington nuclear facility, east of Toronto (for more details, see The Star article
New reactors for Darlington).

I am not a fan of nuclear energy (though even less a fan of coal or other fossil fuel methods of power generation); that said, I have two big issues with going the nuclear route:

1. Have we (in the province of Ontario) done enough in the way of conservation to really see how much power we really need?

2. Seeing as Uranium 235 is in dwindling supply (we apparently only have about 50 years left at current usage rates), what will these reactors use for fuel?

I will try to answer both and let you, the readers, comment. In reply to issue #2, apparently the CANDU reactor design (by AECL) can (in theory) use “spent” nuclear fuel as a fuel source. If this is so, great, there is enough spent fuel within the province to supply the existing reactors and the new ones at Darlington for years. I bring this idea forward because the current way nuclear fuel is used is a “once through” the system process; this means that once through the reactor, nearly 95% of the fuel is still there, viable and can be re-used, should it desired. Why it’s not been done to date, I suspect is in part to two main reasons, 1). it was cheaper to buy fresh U235 and 2). we didn’t have the technology. I believe that both are now possible. I will admit at not wanting be in the “backyard” of such an experimental device. But I chide AECL and others for their lack of foresight in this matter.
To answer the conservation question, I will say that we, in Ontario, haven’t tried hard enough nor have our politicians been responsible enough (whether at the municipal, provincial or federal level) to mandate conservation. They fear for their jobs and not enough for the populations future. If they won’t, we must!!! As previously noted, my own household has lowered our energy usage by a significant amount (we were down to 8.5Kwh/day for the February-April period this year; much lower than our highest of 16.2Kwh in 2006); why can’t the respective governments help people to do what we did. Once we’ve really tried, then build the new power plants. Doing it now doesn’t necessarily help solve the problem of our gluttonous desire for power in all forms.

To wrap up, I am not saying to the government to not proceed; but do so only once you’ve tried to conserve first and solved the nuclear waste issue. If after that, it is found that nuclear reactors are needed, so be it. I mightn’t like it and would prefer new solar and wind installations; but we do need base-load power and we already have nuclear reactor sites in Ontario, better to use existing facilities and sites than to build on prestine land.