June 19, 2008

Nuclear plant construction could bring 3,500 jobs to Darlington

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

The first expansion of Ontario’s nuclear supply in almost two decades will generate 3,500 construction jobs, the province estimates.

Energy Minister Gerry Phillips recently announced that Ontario plans to begin building two new reactors alongside the Darlington nuclear power plant by 2012.

A specific price tag was not attached to the project, but it is part of Ontario’s $26.3 billion plan to upgrade the province’s nuclear capacity over the next 20 years. An anticipated 3,500 construction and engineering jobs will be created during the projected five-year construction period for the new reactors.

“We are delighted to see some movement on that project,” said David Surplis, acting president of the Council of Ontario Construction Associations (COCA).

“Projects like this tend to take up a huge number of our member subtrades.”

The plant could be generating electricity by July 2018 and is expected to generate 3,200 megawatts of power.

The new reactors would double Darlington’s capacity and help maintain Ontario’s nuclear generation capacity at 14,000 MW.

Darlington was chosen because its transmission capacity is more accessible than the Bruce power plant site in Kincardine, explained Phillips. Nuclear power provides about 52 per cent of Ontario’s electricity.

COCA and the building trades have been united in their efforts in the past to ensure nuclear refurbishment and work stays on the provincial agenda because it benefits the industry, explained Surplis.

“We are all of the same mind on something like this,” said Surplis.

Three firms are bidding to design the reactors: the federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), which makes the existing Candu reactors; Westinghouse Electric of the United States and Areva of France, the world’s largest nuclear company. The winning bid will be selected in November.

The three firms will be evaluated on their lifetime cost of power, ability to meet Ontario’s timetable to bring new supply on line in 2018 and level of investment in Ontario.

“It is always exciting to see a project like this get announced but we need to remember these construction jobs do not start until 2012,” said Patrick Dillon, Pat Dillon, business business manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario. “We could train a 1,000 new workers by then and we will need to find work for them between now and then.

“There will be a 1,000 workers getting laid off from the Toyota plant job in the next few months alone.”

Darlington currently has four Candu reactors generating about 3,500 megawatts and was engineered by AECL. During Darlington’s original construction there were 10,000 construction workers on the project at peak construction, noted Dillon.

The new reactors will be operated by publicly owned Ontario Power Generation. Before construction can begin, an environmental assessment and licensing by federal regulators must be completed.

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