Toronto: Long term thinking is critical in the energy sector and particularly for nuclear power. In a major speech on January 20, Duncan Hawthorne, the President and CEO of Bruce Power, outlined the major opportunities and challenges he believes are currently facing the nuclear power industry in Canada. Reducing uncertainty is pivotal for the nuclear sector as it is for the rest of the power industry, he stressed. Fortunately, Ontario’s recently released Long Term Energy Plan appears to be an important step in reducing uncertainty and preparing the basis for future development of the domestic nuclear power program.
Speaking to the 103-year-old Empire Club in Toronto, Mr. Hawthorne noted that history has shown that the countries that have successful nuclear energy programs are those that have made firm long-term commitments to the technology and which have been dependable and transparent about their long term direction. He expressed concern about recent episodes of ambiguity in Canadian nuclear energy policy: “It’s also about consistency. You can’t say one thing today and something else tomorrow. People have to know where you stand, and that you will always be in that same position. That’s not the case with our nuclear program. We’ve been schizophrenic. Do we want to kill it? Do we want to defeat it? Do we want to sell it? Are we happy with someone else coming in, and we’ll become passive and just import the technology? Boy, we’ve talked about every one of those options. Make up your mind, make a plan, stick to it.”
Although Ontario had put its plans for further nuclear development on hold for the last couple of years, the Long Term Energy Plan reconfirmed the government’s previous expectations about replacing aging nuclear capacity with new nuclear stations. In fact, there is more consensus on long term nuclear policy questions amongst Ontario’s political leaders than many people realize: “I can tell you I can look at the PC leader, Tim Hudak, and I look at the Liberal leader, Dalton McGuinty, and they might disagree about a million things, but the fact that they need nuclear is not a source of disagreement between them. They might argue about how much, they might argue about how quickly, but neither of them would advocate a world in Ontario without nuclear.”
Interestingly, Mr. Hawthorne seemed to encourage the federal government in its efforts to reshape its role in nuclear energy, while also cautioning that over the long term, the result may be less change than currently anticipated: “There is no exit for a federal government from a nuclear industry. Once you’re in the nuclear industry, you’re in it. And the only question is whether or not you want to be fully committed and visibly supporting it and actively promoting it, or whether you want to accept it as a liability and risk.”
The nuclear sector has a lot of unique challenges. One of the key issues is that those from the engineering perspective tend to be optimistic – which can lead to inaccurate projections for timelines, even though the quality of the engineering in Canada is first rate. In contrast, those from the legal and commercial side of the industry tend to be less optimistic and may not always appreciate the importance of the steady long term commitments. “It’s impossible to do a job if you don’t know where your shareholder is and you live from day to day. You need a long-term plan and you need a long-term commitment.”
Another fundamental challenge faced by the nuclear industry is that its complexities are sometimes difficult to explain to the public. “It’s not made for retail politics; it never was.”
Commenting on the supply mix, Hawthorne left the audience with a memorable observation: “My logic has always been the same: there is a role for every type of technology in this province; it’s just a question of how much makes sense. We are a unique province. But the one thing I would tell you is most countries, most places I’ve been, they use what God gave them: sun, wind, rain, and uranium.”