Difference between revisions of "Anti-nuclear Movement in Canada"

From Nuclear Heritage
Jump to navigationJump to search
m
(+cat)
Line 105: Line 105:
 
[[Category: Canada]]
 
[[Category: Canada]]
 
[[Category: Events]]
 
[[Category: Events]]
 +
[[Category: Atomic Policy]]
 
[[Category: 2009/10/27]]
 
[[Category: 2009/10/27]]

Revision as of 15:43, 28 September 2012

Nuclear Power generation in Canada has been plagued with safety failures, cost overruns, and, in many cases, an inability to produce the power promised by nuclear companies. Canadian provincial governments are reacting in very different ways to this controversial energy source. While the province of Quebec has declared a moratorium on all nuclear power projects, Ontario is planning to replace all coal-fired energy plants with nuclear plants by 2012. The province of New Brunswick continues to host one nuclear reactor, while the government of Alberta is considering building Western Canada's first nuclear power station.

Canada is also an exporter of uranium, which has led to extensive human rights abuses among those living near mines.


The Ontario Situation

Nuclear power in Ontario has left a legacy of crippling debt for the government and the people to shoulder. All Ontarians pay back part of the province's $38 billion nuclear debt. Dubbed the 'Debt Retirement Charge,' the fee taxes ever kilowatt-hour of electricity used by Ontario households. For each kilowatt-hour used, households must pay an extra 0.7 cents plus taxes, which works out to about $81 per year lost per household in Ontario, to pay the nuclear debt already incurred[1].

Nuclear power currently makes up about half of Ontario's power generation REF. This is set to increase as the Government of Ontario aims to phase out all coal-fired power plants by 2014, with much of this lost power generation to be taken up by nuclear.

Plans for new NPPs in Ontario seem to fail

In July 2009, the nuclear power provider Bruce Power informed that the company has decided to withdrawn their applications for new Nuclear Power Plants in Ontario. The demands for electricity in the province wouldn't give reasons for these investitions. Instead of constructing new NPPs Bruce Power wants now to concentrate on the refurbishment of their old reactors.[2] Some time before the administration of Ontario had suspended the plans to construct new reactors in Darlington because of the high costs[3]

Bruce Power emphasized that this decision wouldn't mean that they would also cancel their NPP plans in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In these provinces that don't have nuclear power plants yet the company waits for the governments general decisions about nuclear power.[4]

The New Brunswick Situation

The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is located on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and houses a single 680 MWe CANDU-6 nuclear reactor unit. It achieved full operational power in 1983 and is publicly owned by NB Power.

The Point Lepreau station has been undergoing refurbishment under the direction of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), a publicly owned corporation. The refurbishment has been repeatedly delayed for a number of reasons. The federal government under Stephen Harper has offered AECL for sale. It is not known how the sale of AECL will affect the refurbishment and operation of the Point Lepreau generating station.

In 2002, the New Brunswick Public Utilities Board concluded that refurbishing Point Lepreau “is not in the public interest” and there would be “no significant economic advantage” for the province. Disregarding the disapproval, NB Power and the government of New Brunswick went ahead with the refurbishment and has continued unrestrained spending while the New Brunswick public has been fed a great deal of misinformation.[1]

Elizabeth May, leader of the Canadian Green Party calls Point Lepreau "a money pit” and stated that "the project is billions over budget and now is the time to pull the plug.” [2]

The site on wich Lepreau is located is the ancestal home of the Passamaquoddy First Nation. Passamaquoddy Chief Hugh Akagi has demanded that the Point Lepreau reactor be removed from the territory[3]. Chief Akagi is working with a coalition of groups across Canada who want to see Point Lepreau shut down for good, including the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Concerned Citizens of Saint John, People Against Nuclear Energy, Fundy Baykeeper, Friends of the Musquash, Greenpeace Canada and the Atlantic Sierra Club [4].

The Point Lepreau Decommissioning Caucus is working to debunk three myths about nuclear power, that it is green, there is a need for it, and that it is cheap. The Caucus has pointed to a decision of the Advertising Standards Canada, which ruled that CANDU reactors cannot be referred to as “emissions free.” In fact, nuclear power produces lots of greenhouse gas emissions. Further, Point Lepreau has so far produced thousands of tons of highly toxic and radioactive waste. Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is in charge of finding solutions to dispose of this waste, reports that it will remain toxic indefinitely. Point Lepreau releases the highest levels of tritium in Canada as well as emitting other radioactive toxins into the air, lands and waters around the Bay of Fundy. Willi Nolan, a spokesperson for the group states that "This is an unethical burden to place on future generations." [5] and that “the mining, transportation, processing and construction required to operate nuclear power plants all contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.”[6]

The International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH) is sponsoring a statement to gather support for the decommissioning of Point Lepreau. Dr. Rosalie Bertell, founder of IICPH, is a recipient of the MacBride Peace Prize and Right Livelihood Award and has been nominated for Nobel Prize, agrees that nuclear power is neither green, economical nor safe. In her article Going Green Too Expensive?, she reports that when "the danger and cost to present and future generations from nuclear contamination of the environment and the containment of mountains of nuclear waste are added, in all conscience, the idea of energy from new nuclear must be abandoned." Rather than acknowledging the need to abandon nuclear power, Bertell reports that "neither the US or Canada seem to be prepared to look at the alternative opportunities" and that "the idea of conservation measures to cut down on the need for electricity is given lip service but very little meaningful action."

The New Brunswick government, led by Progressive Conservative David Alward, has promised to open the province's energy debate to public consultation. However, he has also sought federal funding to cover excessive costs from numerous delays in the refurbishment of Point Lepreau[], ignoring the fact that New Brunswick has no established right to use the Passamaquoddy land on which it sits. The controversy is attracting regular media and growing popular support [7].

In its own effort to work toward ending the nuclear fuel chain, the United Church of Canada adopted a resolution that urges the Government of Canada to deny any financial support from the Government of Canada towards the refurbishment of the nuclear power plant at Point Lepreau. In place of nuclear power, the resolution offers encouragement to the Governments of Canada and New Brunswick to pursue a renewable energy strategy with regard to the production of electricity and invest in conservation, increased energy efficiency, and sustainable natural resources. [8]

The Green Party of Canada (GPC) is supporting the call of Chief Akagi to remove the Point Lepreau reactor from the traditional lands of the Passamaquoddy Nation and return the ancestral lands. Lorraine Rekmans, Aboriginal Affairs Critic for GPC says that “Chief Akagi has a deep understanding that nuclear power is not at all ‘clean’, in fact it is leaving a terrible legacy of toxic waste for future generations and that is not acceptable.” [9]


Links to Canadian Anti-Nuclear Organizations

Indigenous Links



  1. http://www.gosage.net/Site/Ontario_Hydro_Debt_and_Cost_Over-runs.html
  2. http://www.brucepower.com/pagecontent.aspx?navuid=1211&dtuid=84013 on August 3, 2009
  3. Bruce nixes 'more nukes' plan. The Toronto Sun, Fri Jul 24 2009 BY JONATHAN JENKINS, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
  4. http://www.brucepower.com/pagecontent.aspx?navuid=1211&dtuid=84013 on August 3, 2009