John W. Anderson, Assistant Business Manager

A decision by the provincial government to build two new nuclear reactors at the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) site in Darlington is good news for Local 793 operating engineers.
The project, expected to begin in 2012, will generate 3,500 construction jobs and create many new opportunities for our members. The new reactors, the first to be built in Ontario in more than 15 years, will generate 3,200 megawatts of power, doubling Darlington’s capacity. They will take approximately five years to complete and could be generating electricity by 2018.
The province chose Darlington because its transmission capacity is more accessible than the Bruce Power plant site in Kincardine. We don’t yet know the specific pricetag for the project, but it’s part of Ontario’s $26.3 billion plan to upgrade the province’s nuclear capacity over the next 20 years.
Three firms are presently bidding to design the reactors — federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), which makes the existing Candu reactors; Westinghouse Electric of the U.S.; and Areva of France, the world’s largest nuclear company. The winning bid is expected to be selected in November.
An ongoing environmental assessment and licensing by federal regulators must be completed before the work can start.
But it’s definitely good news for our members when a project of this magnitude is announced.

PICKERING
It is not yet known whether OPG will move ahead with refurbishment of units at the Pickering B nuclear generating station. OPG chief operating officer Pierre Charlebois said in a speech July 21 that the board will likely make a decision on whether or not to proceed by the end of this year or early 2009.
We are hopeful that OPG proceeds with the refurbishment project as it would create jobs as well as enable the units to continue producing electricity for Ontario until 2050-60.

BRUCE POWER
Local 793 members are still working on the refurbishmentand restart of units 1 and 2 at the Bruce Power plant. We have approximately 30 operating engineers on site, working for companies like AMEC, AECL and Mammoet.
Work to disassemble the reactors continues in both units, as does work to overhaul their turbine generators. Unit 2 is scheduled to return to service in 2009, followed by unit 1 in 2010.
Together, they will generate another 1,500 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply twice the daily needs of a city the size of Hamilton. The project is ranked number one on ReNew Canada’s list of the 100 biggest infrastructure projects in the country.
Employees working on the project deserve congratulations for their impressive safety record. In June, they surpassed 10 million hours without an acute lost-time injury, an impressive stretch of nearly 1,000 days.

HYDRO ONE
Hydro One Networks Inc. hopes to begin construction of the Bruce to Milton Transmission Reinforcement Project in early 2009. The company is still appraising properties along the route and plans to begin making voluntary settlement offers this fall. Hydro One is proposing to erect approximately 180 kilometres of double-circuit, 500-kilovolt electricity transmission line adjacent to the existing transmission corridor extending from the Bruce Power facility to a switching station in Milton.
The existing corridor will have to be widened by up to 61 metres (200 feet). The line will enable Hydro One to transmit approximately 3,000 megawatts of additional electricity from wind and nuclear generating facilities in the Bruce area to the provincial power grid. Hydro One expects to have the transmission line in service by December 2011.

ELECTION
As a final note, I would like to congratulate business manager Mike Gallagher and the team for a successful election campaign.
As financial secretary, I will continue to work hard to advance the interests of the membership and Local 793.