WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1982. PAGE 5 w /1zm LETTERSTO THE EDITOR Taxpayers cannot afford Hydro's. mismanagement Dear Sir: Ontario Hydro needs a 52 per cent increase over the next two years. This corporation is the largest in the Province of Ontario. In fact, they even have·their own tele- vision studios for making commer- cais. The purpose of these commer- cals are to sell "Durham Region and Ontario" their golden dream of "Live Safe, clean and cheap with Nu-' clear Power." Weil Ontario Hy- dro's nuclear dream is not a golden one! How safe? The chances of a catastrophic acci- dent (similar to Three Mile Island) with 23 reactors now com'mitted in Canada, each ex- pected to operate for 30 years or more, the overall probabiIity that a melt down will oc- cur at one of these plants in the near future is greater than 1 in 15 - more than twice the pro- bability of rolling "snake eyes" with two dice. This figure, bas- ed on the Royal Commission's esti- mate, agrees with earlier U.S. esti- mates to within a factor of two (NRC 1975, Vol. 1. Pg. 135). "The Nuclear Liability Act" was passed by the House in 1970 and proclaimed in 1976, limiting the offsite liability of Canadian utilities to a maxi- mum of $75 million for each nuclear site (AECB 1974). The Three Mile Is- land on site clean- up is expected to take about 10 years and cost $1-2 bill- ion, but there is no insurance that cleanup efforts will be successful The health effec- ts resulting from cronic exposufe ta low levels radiation will take decades ta become manifest- ed. The ultimate public health cost Is therefore Im- possible to ascer- tain with any degree of certainty. How clean? The Candu reac- tor takes 95 tons of enriched - uranium and 463 tons of heavy water to start, and the by products or waste is radio- active heavy water, and plutonium. Plutonium is the nost deadly sub- stance to man (also the ingredients for nuclear weapons). The time it takes to decay to its half strength is 239 PU 24,300 years. 24,000 years is longer than civiliza- tion has been rec- orded on earth. Your childrens, childrens ... child- ren will have to con- tend with that waste, plus all other effects caused by nuclear power. The Ontario cabi- net exempted the Darlington nuclear station from en- vironmental hear- ings required under the Ontario Environ- mental Assessment Act. The Canadian public is being ef- fectively left out of the decision making process. Is this to be the pat- tern of the future? There are moun- tains of dangerous uranium tailings which must be care- fully disposed of in a manner yet to be determined. After 30 years operations, the structure itself remains intensely radioactive for a considerable per- lod, and dangerous- ly radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Past ex- periences is not re- assuring. There are still over 200,000 tons of radioactive debris lying in open ravines in Part Hope, Ontario acc- essible ta children and animais, -COLMBUSFURITUREE S eciliin i 12e ie - matr.se ad -hetefild. COUBS ONT.655-2230 despite promises that the town would be cleaned up. Radioactive sol frorn Scarborough has still found no- where to go. How cheap? The 1979, federal expenditure on nu- clear research and development was $106.5 million of the taxpayers' dollars. As recently as April 1981, Ottawa had to forgive $825 million in unpaid loans owed to the federal treasury by AECL - a technically bank- rupt crown corpora- tion. In 1981, nuclear stations provided 33.1 per cent of Hydro's generation, as compared with 31 per cent for hydro electric, and coal and fossil fuels. It was the fir- st-year in which nu- clear exceeded hydro electric as well as thermal generations. The fact that Ontario's reactors have out- performed most other reactors in the world is also impressive. However, the an- nual fuel savings which Ontario Hydro attributes to its nuclear program would barely suf- fice to pay the an- nual operating bud- gets of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and the Atomic Energy Control Board, both of which come from the federal treasury. Moreover, it must be realized that Ont- 24.8 per cent for ario Hydro is cur- rently experiencing 40 to 50 per cent overcapacity above peak demand, steadily declining load forecasts, and a $12 billion debt which is difficult to service at today's interest rates. These circum- stances make the nuclear contribu- tion seem less im- pressive. Based on current board forecast, no new nuclear sta- tions in Ontarlo should be justified for the remainder of this century. With 14,000 MW of undeveloped hydro potential and enormous opportu- nities in renewable energy, there is no need to spend $30 billion by 1990 on Darlington Nuclear Reactor. Ontarlo Hydro has on the drawing board proposais for three more new nuclear generating stations of the size of Dar- lington's 3,400 MW giant during the year 1985 to 1999. Can we as tax payers Hydro's agement. lingtoni afford misman- Stop Dar- R.J. Rutherford, Chairperson - Durham Region, Coalition for Nu- clear Responsi- bility. TYPEWRITERS ADDING MACHINES * CALCULATORS SALES • SERVICE • RENTALS PRINTING AND OFFICE SUPPL-IES 218 Harvvood Ave S Ajax. Ontario 683 1968 "It's a poor day when.we haven't helped a customer" 1 plastic stripsi