Rating: NNNNN
After all the cash burned on nukes, the feds are this week considering throwing a cool $1 billion at a fusion project that won’t produce any usable energy. Our nuclear muckups are like a bad Simpsons episode.
PROBLEM-PLAGUED PICKERING
Cost to build Pickering A in 1971: $662 million ($3.2 billion in current dollars)
Life expectancy of average reactor: 40 years
Number of Pickering reactors currently out of commission: 4
Year they were shut down for long-term repairs: 1996
Estimated cost of restarting reactors: $1.3 billion
Amount restart project is over budget so far: $1.2 billion
Mishaps : Leak of toxic tritium-contaminated water for weeks due to break in weld exposed three workers to highest radiation levels in Canadian history another leak caused worst-ever tritium spill to Lake Ontario all four Pickering B reactors were shut down because of water leak automatic shutdown was triggered when workers pulled the wrong fuse.
BRUCE BREAKDOWN
Cost to build Bruce A in 1970: $1.8 billion
Number of Bruce A reactors currently out of commission: 4
Estimated cost of restarting Bruce A: $340 million
Amount restart project is over budget so far: $60 million
Mishaps : Defect in backup shutdown system went undetected for three weeks after equipment was installed incorrectly maintenance device inserted in reactor core burned hole through pressure tubing containing uranium fuel, shutting down reactor for over a month.
NOT-SO-DARLING DARLINGTON
Cost to build Darlington in 1989: $14.4 billion
Mishaps : Workers did maintenance on wrong reactor damaged fuel bundle prompted 65 per cent cut in operations for several months valve failure caused 10,000 litres of water to spill into reactor vault reactor shut down to fix slow leak of radioactive water.
OTHER FAILED REACTOR EXPERIMENTS
Boiling Water Reactor Cost to taxpayers: $126 million
CANDU 3 Cost to taxpayers: $75 million
Slowpoke Energy System Cost to taxpayers: $45 million
MAPLE-X10 Reactor Cost to taxpayers: $100 million
Total cost of all government subsidies to nuke industry: $17.5 billion
Cost of truck-mounted power units the province will be using to pick up energy slack in the event of a shortage this summer: $100 million each
Cost of nuclear power over a reactor’s lifetime: 5 to 9 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh)
Cost of natural-gas-fired power: 2 to 4 cents per kWh
