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Re: “Two advisors to watch over Darlington Refit costs” Letter to Editor, Toronto Star January 20, 2013

January 20, 2013

The Editors

The Toronto Star

1 Yonge St.

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: "Two advisors to watch over Darlington Refit costs" As comforting as it may be to know that the province will be keeping a closer eye than usual on the proposed refurbishment of the Darlington nuclear plant, the Minister of Energy's announcement avoids the bigger and more obvious question about the project given: the province's falling demand for electricity; existing surplus of generating capacity - which has at times forced the province to pay consumers to use electricity; commitments to new gas and renewable energy sources; and increasingly successful efforts at energy efficiency, whether it makes any sense at all to proceed with another massively expensive nuclear refit project. That question needs to be answered in an open, independent and rigourous forum before the Darlington project proceeds.

Yours sincerely,
Mark S. Winfield, Ph.D. Associate Professor Coordinator Joint MES/JD Program
Chair, Sustainable Energy Initiative