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TORONTO — Ontario’s Liberal government announced plans Monday to squeeze four more years of life out of the aging reactors at the Pickering nuclear generating station and will start a $12.8 billion refurbishment of the Darlington power station this fall.

Nuclear reactors at both stations owned by Ontario Power Generation were originally scheduled to be decommissioned in 2020, but the cabinet decided to keep operating two units at Pickering until 2022, and the other four units until 2024. The decision still needs approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

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The Darlington project, meanwhile, will extend the life of its four reactors by about another 30 years. Cabinet approved the refurbishment of one nuclear reactor starting this fall, but OPG will have to come back for government approval for each of the three other units at Darlington as they too are rebuilt.

The Darlington budget includes a $1.7 billion contingency fund in case of cost-overruns on the $4.5 billion portion of the project done inside the reactor itself _ the nuclear science work deemed as “subject to execution risk” — versus the fixed contracts for the majority of the supporting infrastructure.