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Getting past the nuclear era's fiscal meltdown.
SINCE THE 2011 Fukushima catastrophe, the global decline in nuclear power has steepened. More than L 20 countries are phasing I out nuclear plants, have ' stopped the construction of new reactors, or passed laws prohibiting nuclear power. The number of reactors and nuclear electricity output is falling worldwide.
Japanese citizens are still feeling the horror of Fukushima. Some 400,000 people were evacuated - and a staggering 100,000 people are still displaced three years later. In all, 800 square kilometers of land is too radioactive for human habitation. More than 225,000 tonnes of radioactive soil sits in plastic bags about the area, and 272 tonnes of radioactive water still flow Into the Pacific Ocean every day.
The cost of the damage caused by the Fukushima Dailchl power plant meltdown is estimated at US$250-billion and could end up doubling. And guess who is going to bear that cost? Japanese taxpayers.
The fact that no company will insure nuclear power suggests that It is a financial catastrophe In waiting. In Canada, the Harper government has passed legislation that will limit the nuclear Industry's liability to $1-billion. So if a Fukushima-scale catastrophe happened In Canada, the nuclear industry would be responsible for less than 0.4 per cent of the cost. Taxpayers would be on the hook for the other $249-bllllon. Certainly the financial burden of catastrophic fallout would be unaffordable.
While the federal government obviously doesn't have a grip on adequate liability, the nuclear Industry also consistently and dramatically underestimates the costs of construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear plants. In the United Kingdom, the decommissioning costs of Sellafleld nuclear site have hit £70-bllllon (CAD$128-billion). If, for instance, the cost of decommissioning the Darlington nuclear reactors in southeastern Ontario were the same, every Ontario resident would have to bear $10,000 in additional taxes. The real message is that we just cannot afford nuclear energy.
Nuclear power has never been profitable when all costs are Included. No private corporation will agree to construct and operate nuclear reactors without government guarantees of paying for construction cost overruns, covering or capping accident liability, and paying for the long-term disposal of nuclear waste.
The Darlington reactors went 4.5 times over budget, costing provincial taxpayers...