Feature story - September 14, 2011
Durham — A new Greenpeace report shows a nuclear accident at either the Pickering or Darlington nuclear stations would cost billions of dollars and would far exceed the levels of compensation available to residents of Durham region.
“If you live in Durham region, your home isn’t insured against a nuclear accident and the reactor operators are protected by the government from paying you full compensation in the event of a nuclear accident,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, an energy analyst with Greenpeace. “This is unfair and another reason why Ontario should choose green energy.”
Greenpeace commissioned the Centre for Spatial Economics to calculate the loss in property values and economic activity if a nuclear accident were to force the evacuation of a 20-kilometer area around the Pickering or Darlington nuclear stations. A 20-km zone has been evacuated around the Fukushima nuclear station in Japan for the past six months. Statements by the Japanese government indicate the evacuation zone may need to be permanently depopulated because of the high radiation levels.
A special law protects Ontario Power Generation (OPG), the operator of the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations, from compensating the communities of Durham region beyond $75 million dollars. Personal home insurance policies also exempt nuclear accidents.
The report found that uninsured residential property in the 20-km zone around the Darlington and Pickering nuclear station ranges from $61 to $186 billion. An accident causing the evacuation of the 1.3 million residents in the 20-km area around the Pickering station would cause a loss of $56 billion in economic production.
To highlight the concerns about lack of insurance for Durham residents, Greenpeace has set up billboard in downtown Oshawa proclaiming: “Your home isn’t insured in the event of a nuclear accident. Choose Green Energy.”
“Since the Fukushima nuclear accident six months ago, Japan has dropped plans to build new reactors and has instead passed legislation to expand green energy,” said Stensil. “Here in Ontario, both Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak and Premier Dalton McGuinty say they’ll spend billions on expensive new reactors at Darlington, but they won’t be ones forced to pay the clean up costs in the event of a nuclear accident. It will be the people of Durham.”
The report, Economic Impacts of a Nuclear Accident at the Pickering or Darlington Nuclear Stations, is at: www.greenpeace.ca/accidentimpact
Q and A on the economic impacts of a nuclear accident in Ontario