• High cost
• Low efficiency
• Expensive to maintain
• Prone to breakdowns
• Big environmental footprint

The Nuclear Model

High Cost
Ontario is budgeting $26 billion for new nuclear plants, but Moody’s Investors Service, one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies, says the real cost is likely to be 2.5 times that.  Moody’s has the facts on its side – no nuclear project in Ontario has ever come close to being completed on budget.  Much of the technology being proposed for Ontario, such as the new  CANDU, doesn’t even exist yet – it is just plans on paper (or in a computer). 

The last time Ontario took a chance on a paper reactor – the Maple reactor that was supposed to produce radioactive isotopes for medical use -- the units turned out to be unsafe to operate once built. 

The need for ever more stringent safety and security standards in a post 9/11 world means higher and higher costs for dangerous nuclear plants.  You don’t have to guard a wind turbine 24/7 against terrorist attacks or sabotage.

Just think what we could achieve if we put $68 billion into efficiency programs, high-efficiency combined heat and power generation and clean renewable energy.

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Just think what we could achieve if we put $50-$60 billion into efficiency programs, high-efficiency combined heat and power generation and clean renewable energy.

Sign the petition for a Nuclear Cost Responsibility Act for Ontario

Every nuclear construction project in Ontario's history has gone massively over budget. And we are all on the hook for these runaway costs, paying a nuclear debt surcharge on every kilowatt of electricity we use. Renewable and natural gas generating projects are strictly prohibited from passing on cost overruns to consumers or taxpayers. It’s time to level the playing field and end nuclear’s free ride.

Read our recipe for Ontario's Green Future