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MCKENNA: Nuclear energy critical to meeting climate emissions targets

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Ontario has done it right, and Jack Gibbons couldn’t be more wrong about the future of nuclear energy — so wrong it’s as if it was intentional.

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The fact is nuclear energy is a non-emitting source of energy, and it is increasingly being looked to around the world, including here in Canada, as critical to reaching the global climate change target of net zero emissions by 2050.

And contrary to the picture painted recently by Gibbons and his Ontario Clean Air Alliance, nuclear innovation is surging, right now, when the economy needs it most.

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The nuclear industry supports over 50,000 good jobs right here in Ontario and is helping to support our advanced manufacturing sector with Made in Ontario solutions as our economy recovers. It seems counterintuitive that Gibbons would suggest those jobs and manufacturing should leave Ontario right now, but depending on other jurisdictions to provide our electricity is not a solution most Ontarians would support.

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You need to know Gibbons and his Ontario Clean Air Alliance have flip-flopped on energy policy more times than we care to count. It wasn’t that long ago they were touting natural gas as our energy saviour.

Then it was hydro imports from Quebec, and now it’s apparently more expensive wind and solar. It’s quite ironic a self-described “clean air” organization is touting alternatives that have been proven to increase emissions, as they have in Germany.

Here are the facts. There are already critical green infrastructure projects in place — part of Ontario’s nuclear advantage — which have not only served as pillars of reliability through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but will also provide further opportunities for innovation, jobs, investment and decarbonization in the months and years ahead.

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Regarding cost, Gibbons has it backwards once again. A recent Green Ribbon Panel report shows that while nuclear and hydro are low cost, other forms of generation in Ontario cost 3.4 times more, and that relying on a predominantly renewables-based alternative with natural gas backup will be 48% more costly than Ontario’s current electricity system.

It also states that pursuing a smartly integrated solution, including extensive use of nuclear generation, could be up to 28% less costly than Ontario’s system today and half the cost of the renewables-based alternative.

Nuclear innovation is critical to meeting our climate emissions targets. Nuclear power was essential in enabling Ontario’s phase-out of coal-powered generation, and can continue to be a driving force in greening our economy. Ontario emissions are many times less than California and Germany thanks to this.

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As the C.D. Howe Institute recently highlighted, “Economy-wide decarbonization will not happen in the laboratory, and governments should help prove out promising, new technologies by investing in demonstration-scale projects — for example, development of small modular nuclear reactors, hydrogen production, grid-scale battery storage and carbon sequestration.” These are all areas Canada’s nuclear industry is actively working on.

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Our innovative role in safeguarding public health through the production of life-saving medical isotopes has never been more important, and is also an area where Canada can expand its existing leadership globally.

Bruce Power, for example, is a world leader in producing Cobalt-60 and will soon complete another harvest of this isotope used to sterilize more than 24 billion of pieces of protective medical equipment around the world this year alone. The industry is also exploring production of other new isotopes to diagnose and detect disease that would provide new export opportunities for Canadian firms.

Nuclear energy is Canada’s green infrastructure cornerstone that delivers reliable, low-cost, emissions-free power to consumers, but as spelled out here, it is so much more.

The nuclear industry stands ready to do its part to ensure Canada emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic looking to innovate, create, compete and lead in what will be a newly transformed global economy.

— Taylor McKenna is project manager at Ontario’s Nuclear Advantage

twitter.com/ontnuclear

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