Quebec’s energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said he agrees with public power utility Hydro-Quebec’s decision to study a possible restarting of the province’s only commercial nuclear power plant.

Fitzgibbon was reacting to an announcement by Hydro-Quebec last week that it was studying whether to restart the Gentilly-2 nuclear plant as a response to a growing demand for clean energy.

He told reporters in Montreal that as Quebec moves away from fossil fuels, all alternative sources of energy should be studied.

It would be “irresponsible”, he said, to reject nuclear power outright, adding that any new energy projects should be “socially acceptable and economically profitable”.