Author Archives: Other News Sources

Dear Concerned Citizen:

Experts in nuclear weapons recognize that by far the most difficult step in building a bomb like the one that destroyed Hiroshima is acquiring sufficient weapons-grade material.

Yet a private Canadian multinational, MDS Nordion, has stockpiled almost two nuclear bombs’ worth of the material near Ottawa. And this company is trying to import enough from the U.S. to more than double its stockpile.
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Ontario Power Generation is now making draft chapters of the Environmental Assessment Study (EA) for the return to service of the Pickering A units available for advance public review and comment. In December, OPG will distribute the remaining draft chapters of the EA Report for advance public review and comment, prior to formal submission of a completed draft EA Report to the AECB in January.

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Years after U.S. experts made recommendations to fix the province’s nuclear power stations, most remain idle.

Please see Tom Adams’ response: Safety deficiencies caused reactor shutdown
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Ontario’s former Conservative government was warned loudly and often of the inherent problems facing Pickering A more than six years ago and failed to act, critics say.

Tom Adams of Energy Probe, the energy industry watchdog, said former Tory energy minister Jim Wilson and Bill Farlinger, Ontario Power Generation board chair, both knew that a "nuclear cult" had taken over the giant company and was out of control, making irrational spending decisions in the company’s nuclear division.
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The only surprise is that people are so shocked by yesterday’s damning report on the Pickering nuclear station.

As far back as 1916, experts issued warnings about the potential for huge cost overruns and management troubles at the crown corporation that generates most of Ontario’s electricity.

Repairs to four units at Pickering will cost about $4 billion instead of the $780 million originally forecast, and the job may not be completed until 2008 – six years behind schedule, says the report, by former federal energy minister Jake Epp.
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 Toronto: The Liberal government is looking into lucrative bonuses paid to three top executives at Ontario Power Generation who were fired Thursday after a report blamed them for massive cost overruns in rebuilding Canada’s largest and oldest nuclear plant.

"We’re going to do something about it," Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said Friday, the day after the government fired chief executive Ron Osborne, chief operating officer Graham Brown and chairman William Farlinger.
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A pair of government agencies snarled at each other yesterday as a Canada-U.S. task force probing the August blackout held a public forum.

Hydro One, which owns most of Ontario’s long-distance transmission lines, and the Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO) clashed over who should be responsible for ensuring the reliability of Ontario’s power system.

Only nine speakers took the floor during a session lasting two hours, including a break.
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Hot days ahead and a desire to keep cool could spell trouble for the province’s electricity system.

Ontario Power Generation said yesterday its two Pickering A nuclear units, which have been down for unplanned maintenance for a month, will now be out of service for most of the summer.
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