NEWS RELEASE: Canadian tribunal rules there is “no need” to delay hearing to licence new nuclear reactors in Ontario

(Courtice, Ontario) - The Darlington New Nuclear Power project hearing will begin this evening, as planned, in Durham Region, Ontario. Earlier today, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and other intervenors brought motions to temporarily adjourn the country's first federal environmental assessment and licencing hearing for a new nuclear power plant.

Citing the unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan as well as a lack of a detailed plan, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and other intervenors had asked that the three-week hearing be rescheduled for a future date.

Ontario Power Generation, the Crown Corporation seeking permisson to construct up to four new nuclear reactors on the north shore of Lake Ontario, argued against the motion to adjourn.

"We are extremely disappointed in the panel's decision. This is the most important nuclear hearing in Canadian history. It is our only chance to review the environmental effects of the new Darlington nuclear project, which will occupy the north shore of Lake Ontario for the next century," says Waterkeeper and President Mark Mattson of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper.

"By moving forward without knowing which reactors OPG will use, without sworn testimony, and without waiting to learn the tragic lessons from Japan's crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, the legitimacy of this quasi-judicial hearing is in question," says Mattson.

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Contact

Mark Mattson via Allie Kosela

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper

416-861-1237

news@waterkeeper.ca