Darlington Nuclear New Build Environmental Assessment Fully Restored on Appeal

Abstract

The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal on September 10, 2015 overturned a lower court decision which had required a reconsideration of an environmental assessment of a new nuclear build project. One of the three grounds upon which the lower court had invalidated the assessment was that the assessment tribunal had failed to consider the effects of a common cause accident involving both the existing and proposed nuclear reactors and had left this issue to be addressed by the nuclear regulator as part of the licensing process prior to construction. The Appeal court disagreed stating that it was within the discretion of the tribunal to defer the issue given the improbability of occurence. The proponent had submitted not one but four potential nuclear reactor designs as part  of the assessment , without preferring any one in particular.