Time running out for Ontario to formally request Pickering nuclear power station extension

Globalnews.ca
May 30, 2023
Colin D’Mello and Isaac Callan

Ontario’s electricity generator has yet to file an official application to extend the life of the Pickering nuclear power plant, more than eight months after the Ford government announced it planned to give the plant a longer life.

As the province faces an electricity capacity crunch in 2025 and beyond, the Ford government scrambled to prolong the Pickering power plant until September 2026,  in order to guarantee a steady supply of power as the province experiences a rise in demand and shutdowns at other nuclear power plants.

The extension may come down to the wire, however, as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), the federal regulator tasked with approving or denying the extension, tells Global News the province has yet to file key paperwork.

The information is required for the application and the government now has a month before the deadline runs out.

“The Commission requires that Ontario Power Generation submit specific information by June 30, 2023, if it intends to operate the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station beyond December 31, 2024,” the CNSC told Global News in a statement. “The Commission Registry has not yet received an application from Ontario Power Generation.”

If Ontario doesn’t receive the green light, the power plant which currently is responsible for 14 per cent of the province’s energy grid will be decommissioned in 2025 leaving the province with a significant shortfall.

For its part, the Ford government doesn’t seem concerned about the impending timeline suggesting the Crown corporation responsible for the application will get it in on time.

“OPG is on track to submit their application before the end of June and has already started to submit supporting materials as part of the regulatory process,” a spokesperson for energy minister Todd Smith said.

The need for Pickering
By the Ford government’s own admission, Ontario will become a power-hungry province over the course of this decade as new electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants, electrification of transportation networks and increased population growth contribute to the demand.

“We’re going to need a lot more electricity,” Smith said at a news conference on May 25.

At the same time, the province has been facing an impending cliff with the scheduled decommissioning of the Pickering site at the end of 2024 and the refurbishment of Darlington nuclear power station.

To fill the gap, the Ford government approved a mix of electricity generation to stabilize the provincial grid including a small modular nuclear reactor, new battery storage facilities and more natural gas facilities.

While OPG had been looking to extend the life of the Pickering plant until December 2025, the Ford government suddenly approved an even longer extension last fall to keep the plant operational during the peak summer days in 2026 -- when the government would also face voters in a general election.

Internal documents, obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws, reveal the government had a secondary motive for keeping the Pickering plant alive: to give environmentally conscious Ontarians the impression it was attempting to counter the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from more natural gas generation.

The September announcement that Pickering would be kept open almost two years longer than previously planned was “one in a series of announcements” leading up to confirmation in October that Ontario would open new gas power stations for the first time in years.

“Announcements in the lead up to the (Independent Electricity Systems Operator) report would reinforce the message that the government is looking at all alternatives to emitting resources,” said one document. The Pickering decision was designed to be “leveraged as part of a broader communications strategy” to improve the perception of the government’s green credentials.

Another extract from the documents explains the “decision to continue Pickering operations will be highlighted as proof (the) government is exploring all options to maintain Ontario’s world-class clean electricity grid.”

The government’s sudden change also forced the OPG to ask for a filing deadline extension from the CNSC, moving it from Dec. 31, 2022, to  June 30, 2023. The request was approved.

The request of the regulator
While portions of the Pickering plant are scheduled to go offline over the next 19 months, the Ford government wants to continue operating four units of the facility until 2026 before refurbishing the units to potentially get another 30 years of clean electricity.

Ontario’s Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) recently acknowledged that, if approved, the plant would still close its doors in 2026 and would only be able to restart in the 2030s.

In order to gain approval, however, OPG had to ask the CNSC to greenlight the extension. That would then trigger a public consultation process.

“Should Ontario Power Generation file an application for the continued operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, CNSC staff would assess it before making recommendations to the Commission as part of a public hearing process,” the regulator told Global News.

In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson for OPG said it is “on track” to submit its paperwork to the CNSC requesting the extension.

“By the end of June, we will submit the application to amend our power reactor operating licence to operate Pickering Units 5, 6, 7 and 8 through September 2026,” said Neal Kelly, a spokesperson for OPG.

Ontario’s plans to extend the life of Pickering’s plant to 2026 and then beyond are on the CNSC’s radar.

A January briefing note prepared for the nuclear regulator’s president before a virtual meeting with Todd Smith listed Pickering’s extended operations as part of a list of “priorities” he might want to raise.

The note, obtained using federal freedom of information laws, lays out the province’s plan to extend Pickering through the refurbishment of its “B” units after 2026.

The document’s short “key messages” for the president stress the importance of communication and timeliness from the Ford government if it wants to see its plan safely approved.

“Early and ongoing engagement and communication with the CNSC will be key to ensuring safety and avoiding unnecessary delays,” the briefing note explained.

The government said OPG is also “on track” to give Smith a feasibility report “later this year” on potentially refurbishing the plant allowing it to run for an additional three decades.

The last feasibility study for that project was completed between 2006 and 2009, with OPG now trying to update it by the end of 2023.

The studies and research needed to prove that Pickering can be refurbished after 2026 will take around a year, according to provincial documents.

The work is set to cost around $40 million, money the province believes can be recovered through price changes “through existing Ontario Energy Board mechanisms in a future rate-setting period” after 2026.