Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer says Nanticoke is still in the running to host a nuclear power plant despite media reports saying it's already been ruled out as a site.
The London Free Press reported Monday that Queen's Park has narrowed down its choice for a new site to one of two existing nuclear plants, either in Kincardine or at Darlington in Durham Region, and will make an announcement within days.
Trainer, however, said Nanticoke is being considered "for above and beyond what they're doing this round" and could still be approved in the future.
"It's always been on as far as looking at it," Trainer said. "It's in the running to be looked at."
Bruce Power, the private company that owns Ontario's nuclear plants, is in talks with U. S. Steel to buy unused land at its Lake Erie factory in Nanticoke for a nuke plant, she said.
"As soon as they seal that deal, they'll do an EA (environmental assessment)," Trainer said. "If that proves OK, they'll buy it."
Haldimand County is pushing for the EA to be done and wants to have something in place at Nanticoke if the coal-fired generating station there is closed by 2014, as Queen's Park has promised.
The station, blamed by environmentalists for being one of the worst contributors to greenhouse gases, employs 600 people in well-paying jobs and pays the county millions in property taxes.
Trainer said she envisions a situation in which two of Nanticoke's eight coal-fired units continue running beside a new nuclear plant.