“A Terrorist’s Dream Come True & Taxpayers’ Nightmare”

US Activists call Bruce Nuclear Site
Terrorist’s Dream Come True & Taxpayers’ Nightmare
National Columnist calls for closure of Nuclear Sites

Inverhuron, Ontario — September 18, 2002 — Representatives of Canadian and U-S based citizens’ groups told
reporters gathered in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery at Parliament Hill on Friday, September 13, that the
Bruce Nuclear site was a “Terrorist’s Dream Come True” and that the Western Waste Management Facility at the
Bruce site was a taxpayer nightmare in the making.

The remarks coincided with appearances by the groups before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC),
Canada’s nuclear regulator. On September 13th, the CNSC held hearings into an application by Ontario Power
Generation (OPG) to have its Western Waste Management Facility (a nuclear waste storage site at the Bruce nuclear
facility on the Lake Huron shoreline) designated as a “nuclear installation” under the Canada’s Nuclear Liability Act.
Such status would limit the amount of liability and required insurance OPG must hold on the site to $75 million Can.

Against a backdrop of financial free fall for British Energy (majority owner of Bruce Power, operators of the Bruce
reactors) and governance issues for the CNSC, the appearance of the Americans caught considerable press attention.

On Saturday, September 14th, the Toronto Star, Kitchener Waterloo Record, London Free Press (pdf format – front
page coverage – London gets its drinking water from Lake Huron) and many other papers carried versions of a report supplied to media across Canada by Canadian Press. Radio and television outlets also carried the story.

On Sunday, September 15th, the London Free Press expanded on its previous days coverage. (pdf format)

On September 17th, Globe and Mail staff writer Eric Reguly published a half page feature article in the business
section of Canada’s national newspaper, addressing many of the same fiscal concerns raised by U-S citizen’s groups in Ottawa. Reguly reached the extreme conclusion on the topic in his final paragraph:
“The most important lesson from British Energy and the Canadian nuclear
experiments is that the taxpayer always loses. In the end, it’s not a question
of privatizing or not privatizing. Most of these nuclear plants shouldn’t have
been built in the first place. Shutting them down before the repair bills
escalate and clobber the taxpayer is the best solution.”

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