The companies that operate nuclear power plants in Ontario are seeking environmental approvals to build eight reactors, four times the number in the province's plans.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan, however, remains firm that only two reactors are on the table.

But he has written to Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power saying they can apply for environmental assessments for a total of four reactors each.

Last year, the governing Liberals said a large part of their plan to address the province's expected future energy shortage was to build two nuclear reactors and refurbish others.

A spokesperson for Duncan said the minister realizes that energy demands could require the building of more reactors if existing plants can't be refurbished.

The two companies say their application to Canada's nuclear safety regulator allows them to either build new reactors or refurbish old ones.

"When it comes to replacing Bruce B, which won't be required until 2015-2016, at the earliest, we want to have at least another option to compare refurbishment with," said Duncan Hawthorne, president of the company.

Opponents say they don't believe two nuclear plants will be sufficient to deal with the continuing rise in electricity use.

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory says the Liberals are downplaying the need of nuclear reactors because they're worried about political fallout.