"The public was in for one more shock before the dust settled on Ontario Hydro. The utility was mandated to set aside a portion of their revenue from the time the reactors were built in order to decommission them when they were shut down. It was revealed that the utility had put the funds directly into general revenue instead; there was no money set aside for decommissioning. It is unclear at this time whether this will become the responsibility of Ontario taxpayers or if the pain will be shared by all Canadians." (emphasis added)
What's truly shocking about this is the fact that this applies to 20 atomic reactors in Ontario. Thus, Ontario provincial and/or Canadian federal taxpayers will be looked to for likely tens of billions of dollars in decommissioning costs over time, simply because the nuclear utility did not set aside the funds, as mandated.
McNamara goes on regarding decommissioning:
The Canadian taxpayer will also be responsible for most of the costs of decommissioning the reactors and other nuclear facilities. There are no Canadian cost estimates available but the British Government's National Audit Office released a report on January 30, 2008 stating it will cost 73 billion pounds ($140 billion Cdn.) to decommission Britain's reactors and nuclear sites. Canada has a similar number of reactors and contaminated sites.
Taxpayers will have to foot the bill to remediate the abandoned uranium mines in Canada whose owners simply walked away. Many other mines simply dumped their radioactive tailings in the closest lake. These radioactive tailings ponds are contaminating downstream environments. In most cases, the tailings ponds are contained with simple earthen dams. There have been more than 30 breaches of the earthen dams at Elliot Lake since they were first put in place."