"No" to Wesleyville Port Hope Nuclear: Protect the Ontario Taxpayer

Comments on process to date:

Big problem in that issues are only listed. There is no weighting of how many people reported the same issues.

 Ie What percentage of people commenting said “No” because the huge financial cost is solely on the backs of us tax payers? This should definitively put an end to the nuclear project right there!

Especially when Ontario does wind/solar and battery storage so well. Wind and solar are less than 2 times the financial cost of nuclear, are much safer and cleaner. Do you know how the nuclear storage in Lake Ontario is going to be in several hundred years?

OPG hasn’t costed renewable alternatives, let alone projected costs of Wesleyville Port Hope!

Several of my comments did not make your initial summary: Why is Ontario selling electricity to the United States if we need more energy? Premier Ford, started free trade interprovincially. Why doesn’t he make a deal for electricity guzzling data centres with provinces swimming in electricity like Quebec?

The second point missed is that Cobourg has a big beautiful natural sandy beach as part of a tourist feel good town. What happens to us?

If you missed 2 of my points, just how many concerns are not acknowledged?

With the impossibly high financial burden on the Ontario taxpayer, I don’t understand why we need more reasons, but here we go:

Big reasons to say NO to Wesleyville Port Hope Nuclear, and to protect Northumberland, to protect Ontario

1. Huge Financial cost, all borne by us Ontario taxpayers, projected financial cost of nuclear, $160- $230 billion vs $15 to $30 billion for Hydro Quebec wind project both eventually producing 10,000 MW of electricity. Since Hydro wind plants are  smaller, they can be more tailored to the area they serve, with little risk, unlike Wesleyville nuclear.

From: “Ford Watch/Nuclear Reactors or Wind Energy: A Tale of Two Provinces” by David Robertson, SCAN.

https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/ford-watch-nuclear-reactors-or-wind-energy-a-tale-of-two-provinces-by-david-robertson/ 

 “As of April 2026, approximately 38% to 40% of all nuclear capacity ever proposed worldwide has been cancelled. Historically, about one in nine reactors (roughly 11%) that actually started construction were abandoned before ever generating power. “World Nuclear Status Report. Abandonment costs all borne by the Ontario taxpayer.

2. Alternative renewable sources of energy still not costed for the IAAC assessment: this renewable costing is obligatory for newNuclear projects.

3. Storage and Transportation safety. Wesleyville to be the biggest nuclear plant in world, scale of 2 Oshawa General Motor Plants. Storage, 10 years to cool down radioactive waste, emitting radioactivity before it can be buried.  (Ralph Torrie ) Who knows how long it can be buried and how well?

Currently, there is an armed guard for Darlington. For Wesleyville, it would be an armed convoy.

4. Cancer studies done recently in nuclear plant areas, cancer rates increase with proximity, especially breast and prostate cancer in older people.  Nature Communications  2026..reporting from Harvard Chan School.

5. Boom or Bust in nuclear communities.. see Kincardine. During boom, business doing well associated with OPG, rest staff starved. Wind and solar provide jobs too, more consistently and with more stability.

6. This plant to rely on enriched uranium which is linked to the US for this and for nuclear software. What level of enrichment? This from a country which wants to make us the 51 st State!

7. Environmental effects named by OPG on the IACC proposal.. both huge thermal warming on Lake Ontario, chart after chart of the mitigation OPG would have to do to protect fish and fauna. The same mitigation would have to be done for the effluents being released. Our sandy beach in tourist town Cobourg is at risk.

8.Risk of Rogue hacking, or interference with the nuclear plant. Look how unstable the world is now, how precarious is the nuclear plant in the Ukraine. One accident would have catastrophic effects. 70 % of Ontario residents lives within 60 km of the proposed Wesleyville site.

9. Countries like Norway have no commercial nuclear plants. Electricity is 98% renewable, mainly from hydro. (AI)

10. Port Hope is still suffering from backyards being dug up today to remove contaminants from soil, particularly challenging from residents suffering from breast cancer.

11. Presence of faults in Lake Ontario. “The Alignment of the Hamilton- Presqu’ile fault with the St. Lawrence fault zone strongly suggests that the latter crosses the entire length of Lake Ontario and continues along the Dundas valley.” From,“ The presence, characteristics and earthquake implications of the St. Lawrence fault zone within near Lake Ontario.”

12. If we need more electricity, Premier Ford needs to stop selling electricity to the United States. Clearly we don’t have a surplus. Data centres are huge electricity guzzlers. Premier Ford could use interprovincial trade agreements with electricity rich provinces such as Quebec.

13. Lastly, 3 mile island, Fukushima, Chernobyl……

Terry Marrocco