Regarding a new nuclear plant site near Port Hope, Ont., Mayor Olena Hankivsky said 'the Port Hope council, who are with me today, unanimously support moving forward with further discussions with Ontario Power Generation.'Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
In preparation for what it has called the largest expansion of nuclear power in North America, Ontario’s government has instructed its public electric utility to begin planning for a new nuclear plant near Port Hope.
Ontario Power Generation said the site, known as Wesleyville, could accommodate up to 10,000 megawatts of new nuclear generation capacity. That would make it among the world’s biggest nuclear power plants by output, and considerably larger than the existing Bruce station, currently Ontario’s largest. And it’s more than enough to power homes across the entire Greater Toronto Area.
On Wednesday, the government announced in a statement that it had received “expressions of interest” from the Municipality of Port Hope and the Williams Treaties First Nations. It will provide funding to the First Nations and offer them a part-ownership stake in any generating plant built on the site, which is located 10 kilometres west of Port Hope.
It will also give $1-million to the Municipality of Port Hope to begin assessments of planning and infrastructure requirements and other costs.
These are early steps in a process that, if completed, could take decades and cost many billions of dollars. (OPG estimated it might take 15 years to build and connect the first unit to the grid.)
Citing a Conference Board of Canada study commissioned by OPG, Energy Minister Stephen Lecce said a power project on the site would contribute $235-billion to the province’s gross domestic product and would create more than 10,000 new jobs.
“We want local communities to see the benefit of this project, now and over the 95-year lifespan of this project,” he said during a press conference at the site.
Wesleyville is one of three OPG-owned sites for which the government last year ordered the utility to begin public consultations. In October, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) forecast a 75-per-cent increase in electricity demand between now and 2050, and had previously suggested that the province needs as much as 17,800 megawatts of new nuclear generation capacity.
OPG already plans to build four small modular reactors at its existing Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington; their combined capacity would be about 1,200 megawatts.
And the government also instructed Bruce Power, the private company that controls the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, to begin planning four new reactors with a combined capacity of up to 4,800 megawatts. (The existing eight reactors at Bruce have a total installed capacity slightly greater than 6,500 megawatts.)
But all that still wouldn’t be enough to address the huge demand increases envisioned by the IESO. Hence the interest in three old industrial sites owned by OPG.
OPG’s predecessor, Ontario Hydro, acquired the 1,300-acre Wesleyville site in the 1960s and planned to erect two large oil-fired plants. A powerhouse and underground oil caverns were built, but the project was halted amid soaring energy prices during the 1970s.
The site has been largely disused ever since, although OPG does conduct firefighting training and other activities there. Large portions of the sprawling site, which includes wetlands, is considered environmentally sensitive and cannot be developed.
Just a few years ago, OPG had agreed to sell the Wesleyville site to the Municipality of Port Hope for a reported $18.6-million. But the province halted the sale in 2022, at a time when fears of surging electricity demand were beginning to mount, prompting the municipality to criticize the province for its “heavy-handed approach.”
David Piccini, the MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South, said Wednesday that the sale would have required the municipality to obtain a loan from the province.
“Looking at an increasingly uncertain world, I think the province made a very prudent decision to say we cannot dispose of our energy sites zoned for power production, and we have to keep it within our Rolodex,” he said.
OPG’s other two sites are relics from Ontario’s long dalliance with coal-fired power, which ended more than a decade ago. The first, in Haldimand County, in the province’s Niagara Peninsula, is the site of the former Nanticoke coal-fired power plant.
The second is another former coal-fired power plant, Lambton Generating Station, on the St. Clair River. It was shuttered in 2013 and demolished in 2022.
All three sites have features that make them attractive for building nuclear power plants. Each is zoned to accommodate electricity production and has access to transmission infrastructure. Nanticoke and Lambton were previously power plants, so gaining community acceptance could be easier. Wesleyville is located 30 kilometres east of OPG’s Darlington station, so an experienced nuclear work force is nearby.
OPG said it will prioritize the Wesleyville site over the other two because it’s the first in which both a municipality and Indigenous communities have expressed interest. It will begin assessing the project’s environmental and social impacts and search for a reactor technology.
“The Port Hope council, who are with me today, unanimously support moving forward with further discussions with Ontario Power Generation,” said Port Hope Mayor Olena Hankivsky.
There are seven Williams Treaties First Nations, but none of them spoke at the government’s press conference. In a joint statement later Wednesday, four of the First Nations said they “expect to have fulsome discussions with the province before coming to any conclusions” about the project.
“Industry has taken up our treaty territory for far too long, with little benefit to the First Nations communities,” wrote Chief Laurie Carr of Hiawatha First Nation.
“Now is the time for change.”
Some of the Williams Treaties First Nations have intervened in the Darlington New Nuclear Project, affording a window into some of the challenges that might arise during the Wesleyville negotiations.
OPG is currently seeking a construction licence for the first new Darlington reactor before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. (Hearings wrapped up this week.) Some Williams Treaty First Nations expressed lukewarm support; The Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation told the CNSC in November that it was “confident” continuing negotiations “will result in agreements with OPG and will not hinder OPG’s progress.”
But several First Nations said they’re overwhelmed by the many consultations that they’re already involved in, thus limiting their ability to engage. Some told the CNSC that they lacked sufficient capacity to apply for funding to participate.
Ms. Carr wrote in a letter to the CNSC that the Darlington consultation “is both highly complex and of significant importance as the impacts on our Nation will be ongoing and potentially severe.”
At the same time, First Nations made clear that they expect to be involved in decision-making processes, and reminded the federal government of its numerous obligations to them.
“It is imperative that our Indigenous perspectives are not just sought but are integrated into the consultation, review and decision-making process throughout the entirety of the [Darlington project] and future nuclear projects,” Ms. Carr wrote.
“For some aspects of projects, such as waste, our consent is also required.”
Editor’s note: (Jan. 16, 2025): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Wesleyville is 30 kilometres west of the Darlington station. It is east of Darlington. This version has been updated.