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Nuke pursuit anything but PowerWise

Nuke pursuit anything but PowerWise
thestar.com David Suzuki, 15 Dec 08 “…………………nuclear has been touted as the most reliable source of that increasing power. “………..Energy conservation makes a lot more sense, and it has been proven to be effective. After the rolling brownouts engineered in California by Enron in 2001, the state embarked on a conservation program that slashed usage and saved billions of dollars………………………..Building new plants will be incredibly costly. Every nuclear power plant built in Ontario so far has had huge cost overruns, has been behind schedule, has failed to deliver the amount of electricity promised, and has had a shorter lifespan than promised.

It gets worse. About half of Ontario’s power plants have had serious problems that have led to shutdowns. So taxpayers paid even more to repair the plants and to purchase electricity from other regions during the shutdowns. Nuclear energy has turned out to be the most expensive form of electricity in Ontario by far. (And that’s not even mentioning the usual concerns, such as terrorism risks and radioactive waste!)

If Ontario’s nuclear power plants were any other kind of high-priced product, customers would demand a refund and complain to the Better Business Bureau. And you can bet they wouldn’t be hoodwinked into making the same purchase again…………………………By focusing on renewable energy, Ontario could create a huge number of sustainable jobs and put clean energy onto the grid immediately. It could retool the manufacturing sector and retrain workers to be part of an innovative green-collar workforce. It could export these products and expertise to other parts of the world.

TheStar.com | Opinion | Nuke pursuit anything but PowerWise

December 15, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs