Norm Rubin

August 9, 2000

In the wake of the announcement that Ontario Power Generation (Ontario Hydro successor company) will lease the Bruce Nuclear Power plant to British Energy, Norm Rubin, Director of Nuclear Research for Energy Probe appeared in:

Macleans Magazine
The Toronto Star
The Globe & Mail
The National Post
EYE Magazine
CBC Radio’s National and regional news programes
CBC Radio’s Ontario Today with Dave Stephens
CBC Radio’s Here and Now with Avril benoit
CFO Radio’s Open Line in Owen Sound
CTV’s National news
Prime TV’s Prime Business with Deirdre McMurdy.

Mr. Rubin also spoke with:

Toronto Sun
Reuters
Financial Times of London
Owen Sound Sun-Times
Dow-Jones Energy Service
Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Bloomberg
NOW magazine.

Mr. Rubin made the following points:

– The lease will transfer some of Bruce’s financial risk from "unwilling investors" (Ontario taxpayers) to "willing investors" (British Energy shareholders) – a welcome shift.

– Unfortunately, much of the financial risk — of poor operation as well as higher-than-expected costs of cleaning up the radioactive mess — remains with Ontario taxpayers. The cleanup costs have been estimated by Hydro/OPG at $18.7 billion for all 20 reactors, approximately 40% of which relates to the Bruce reactors.

– The involvement of a shareholder-owned, profit-maximizing company in the operation of Bruce will predictably elicit better regulation (safety and environmental) from federal and provincial regulators, and demands for even stricter regulation from the public. Many people have long believed (wrongly) that Hydro’s/OPG’s public ownership and non-profit status meant that they did not "play to win" in regulatory matters. The lease arrangement will bring welcome clarity in that regard, and the clarity will help remind regulators and the public of the importance of regulation. (Indeed, the federal AECB, now renamed CNSC, has already announced that it directly links private ownership with the need for regulatory stringency: specifically, AECB/CNSC says it will ONLY demand that the present generation provide the cash to clean up the nuclear mess IF reactor ownership is transferred to a private, non-governmental party!)

– In all the above regards, an outright sale of the reactors would have been far preferable to the lease. We are disappointed with the lease arrangement, though it is better than yesterday’s status quo. It also appears (from recent reactor sales) that BE was willing to pay MORE for the 18-year lease than it would pay to buy. (Wouldn’t you??)

– All the cash BE pays for this lease MUST be directed to pay down Ontario Hydro’s "stranded" debts, and not left in the hands of OPG to play with and lose. (Minister Jim Wilson has since promised that this "MUST" will be met.)