(And why wind power doesn’t make any sense)
October 12, 2022
Ontario’s decision NOT to close the Pickering nuclear power plant and in fact analyze all options for keeping it open, has made Ontario a leader (again) in clean power generation.
That’s what Dr. Chris Keefer, head of Canadians for Nuclear Energy, told journalist Robert Bryce in a recent podcast.
View the interview here.
While other sources of power generation are unreliable or “variable” and weather-dependent, nuclear power in Ontario is an “ingenious design,” Dr Keefer said, and is also a source of nuclear isotopes. In fact, Dr. Keefer, who is an emergency room physician in Toronto, said that Ontario nuclear facilities produce nuclear isotopes that are responsible for sterilization of 40 percent of medical equipment in the world. Not just Canada, he said, the world.
The fight to keep Pickering open was a long one, Keefer explained, but just made sense. “The Ontario government has the power to do some extraordinary things,” he said, noting that closing coal plants was a monumental decision. He lauded the Ford government for making the decision to keep Pickering open, and fostering an analysis that will likely show why the power plant should continue operations.
Bryce, a frequent contributor to Forbes magazine and other top business and public affairs publications, and Keefer also discussed wind power. While the language in these videos can get a bit salty at times, this one is relatively profanity-free, until Bryce describes the wind industry. “Those fu**ers in the wind industry,” he said. “They don’t like me very much, and I don’t like them right back.”
Keefer said that nuclear power is part of a “just transition” to clean power generation in Canada. It creates jobs (already 76,000 in Canada) and is a Canadian technology. There are few jobs and prosperity with wind power he said.
Nuclear energy creates not just jobs but careers, Dr. Keefer said. A nuclear power plant has a parking lot for 2,000 employees he commented, while wind power facilities have few employees. And, employees in nuclear earn six-figure incomes.
In Ontario, 25 percent of wind power is “curtailed” or wasted, he explained, because it is generated in the spring and fall, seasons of low power demand.
This is a “must-see” video that covers the main reasons why wind power is not a good choice, and why reliable nuclear power is.
contact@windconcernsontario.ca