Community impact of new nuclear at Wesleyville

Before my main comments, I want to remind the IAAC that in its Original Project Description, OPG bluntly declared that it is not considering energy generation alternatives other than nuclear for its Wesleyville site.

Since then, the Ontario Governement has issued new plans for these alternatives. In this regard, an April 15/26 article in the Toronto Star highlighting the lower costs of wind and solar read partly as follows:

"The price of wind and solar is now so low that electricity from building the new renewable projects will be cheaper than running existing gas plants (9.8 cents/kilowatt hour) and nuclear reactors (12.4 cents/kilowatt hour)."

 I've often wondered if the IAAC is actually up to date on recent dramatic reductions in the costs of alternatives, especially in the past several years. Given that the cost of the proposed nuclear station at Wesleyville has been estimated at more tha $200 billion, what possible justification can there be for the IAAC not to REQUIRE that OPG now do a comprehensive evaluation of alternative generation technologies? Why is the Agency in such a hurry to move this project forward without completing proper due fiscal diligence? 

This question becomes even more important when we recognize that there has been no consideration of the proposed project's overall impact, and not just on the Port Hope Community. Port Hope is in no way prepared to accept the massive community disruption, enormous increases in demand for all types of services, disruption to the lives of those who retired to Port Hope as a small and peaceful community in rurral Ontario, lack of housing for thousands of construction and operational personnel, or completely inadequate infrastructure despite handouts from OPG. .

There is no recognition being given to the inevitable destruction of a fundamentally rural, smalltown environment which many residents - not just of Port Hope but the entire county of Northumberland - moved here to enjoy.

Has anyone from the IAAC actually visited Northumberland County? Apparently not (hopefully your Panel will, for more than a few hearings). If you had, you would have seen a beautiful and peaceful rural community of small towns, narrow rural roads, forests and fields, walkers, runners and cyclists. Farming is the lifeblood of this community: fields of soybeans and wheat are everywhere, farmers' markets and agricultural festivals abound in the summer - and above all, the entire County is built to human scale.

A facility the size and function of Wesleyville will certainly destroy the character of Port Hope, but will also have a massive impact on the entire region. In just one example, the roads in the southwest quadrant of the County are in no way capable of handling the construction and operational traffic that will be created by the proposed facility. Some residents will no longer be safe walking their dogs. Cyclists will be at serious risk of accidents or death. Air and noise pollution will affect large parts of the County.

There is no sign that the IAAC has even thought of these potential and actual impacts, let alone made concrete and detailed plans to properly evaluate them. And lest the Agency suggest that it would be OPG's responsibility to do so, OPG would be impossibly conflicted in trying to objectively assess these impacts.

There ar many other parts of Ontario that have neither the population or character of Northumberland County. Let Wesleyville be built there, before a peaceful and beautiful part of Southern Ontario is destroyed forever.