November 6, 2009
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff needs to hear from his constituents that they don’t support continued bailouts for the nuclear industry. Help us reach out to Iggy’s constituents in Etobicoke- Lakeshore by distributing postcards door-to-door in his riding. We’ve got half the riding covered so far. If you can spare a few hours, please let me know – we need you! Thanks…
Ottawa gives Crown corporation another cash infusion so it can continue Lepreau, Ontario nuclear projects
The federal government has given another $200 million to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to complete the overdue, over-budget refurbishment at Point Lepreau and another running into trouble at the Bruce nuclear plant in Ontario… The $200-million figure is likely to climb.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/848565
Refurbishment over budget by almost $1 billion, with work more than 12 months behind schedule
It's the latest sign that the nuclear "renaissance" in Canada is off to a slow start, if not stalling altogether.
Plans to build a new nuclear plant in Ontario are on hold and the only two refurbishment projects in the country – the restart of Bruce A Units 1 and 2 northwest of Toronto and the overhaul of the Pointe Lepreau plant in New Brunswick – are over budget and more than a year behind schedule.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/721335
The salaries and bonuses paid to all executives of Ontario crown corporations are disclosed each year, but the same principle doesn't apply to federally owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/720722--privacy-act-shields-aecl-salaries
… The Energy Fair group believes that these and other subsidies for the nuclear industry create unfair competition for renewable sources of power and energy conservation measures. The group has received legal advice that the subsidies for nuclear power may well be illegal under EU competition laws.
"In terms of the fight against climate change, nuclear power is a mis-allocation of resources. It diverts funds away from where it would be better spent - on renewables and conservation of energy." said Dr Lowry. "Nuclear power is one of the expensive ways of generating electricity and there are more than enough alternatives that are cheaper, quicker to build, and without the many headaches of nuclear power. Several reports now show how to decarbonise the world's economies without using nuclear power."
http://newsblaze.com/story/20091102060621zzzz.nb/topstory.html
The report, "Nuclear Subsidies" may be downloaded via a link from www.nonukes.org.uk/home or directly via www.mng.org.uk/nsubsidies.pdf (PDF, 167 KB).
On Oct. 29th, Ontario Tory MPP Bill Murdoch moved a private members’ notice of motion, proposing that “the province of Ontario impose a moratorium on all new wind turbine projects in Ontario until such time as Ontario's chief medical officer of health, the Ministry of Health ... and the Ministry of the Environment have stated that wind turbines do not have any adverse health effects on people who live near them.”
After much discussion, the motion was defeated.
You can read the gov’t Hansard transcript here: http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/39-1/l181.htm
ACOMA, NEW MEXICO - On the Navajo Nation, almost everyone you talk to either worked in uranium mines themselves or had fathers or husbands who did. Almost
everyone also has multiple stories of loved ones dying young from cancer, kidney disease and other ailments attributed to uranium poisoning.
French plans to lead a nuclear power renaissance in Britain have been dealt a major blow after regulators warned of serious reservations about the safety of the reactor technology earmarked for use.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6613960.ece
“This new analysis shows that with strong policies, Canada can meet a 2° C target in 2020 and have a strong, growing economy, a quality of life higher than Canadians enjoy today, and continued steady job creation across the country.”
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/latestnews/dsfnews10290901.asp
Toronto Hydro Corp. was given permission on Friday to erect a wind research platform, with an anemometer to measure wind direction and speed, about 1.2 kilometres off the Scarborough Bluffs.
"The research study will be conducted for approximately two years and the collected wind data along with other important factors will help determine whether an offshore wind project is economically viable," said the release.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/10/23/ont-wind.html
More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico.
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/11/nuclear_news_toxic_waste_trick.html
About 300 villagers in the southern province of Surat Thani on Monday protested in front of Tha Chana district office against the possible construction of a nuclear power plant there.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/158869/villagers-oppose-power-plant-construction
Turns out that transubstantiating the fuel used for nuclear energy into nuclear-weapon fuel, far from a miracle, is all too commonplace.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., with four violations concerning improper disposal and transfer of tritium exit signs at its stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-180.html
Background:
Canada's CANDU reactors produce enormous quantities of radioactive hydrogen (called tritium) as an undesirable waste byproduct.
Tritium is a health hazard for atomic workers and for others chronically exposed to tritium contamination. Municipal water treatment facilities are unable to remove tritium from drinking water. Airborne tritium is easily inhaled and is absorbed directly through the skin, and it eventually comes to earth as radioactive rain, snow, or dew.
To help defray the cost of removing tritium from heavy water, efforts have been made to find commercial markets for the radioactive waste byproduct, tritium.
Tritium has important military uses in advanced nuclear weapons, greatly increasing the explosive power of atomic explosions. More benign (non-explosive) markets were sought for the tritium produced by commercial reactors.
One of those markets is tritium-filled signs, which glow in the dark without the need for batteries or electrical connections. But these signs are themselves a form of radioactive waste, and they can end up exposing people and animals due to breakage or leakage. They can also end up causing radioactive contamination of property, landfills and over time, surface and ground water.
Since tritium has a 12-year half-life, it remains a hazard for more than a century.
There are two plants in Ontario that manufacture such tritium-filled signs, one at Pembroke and the other at Peterborough. In both cases, extensive contamination of the environment has occurred, and significant numbers of civilians are unnecessarily and unknowingly being exposed to fugitive tritium emissions from these plants.
Gordon Edwards.
The future sources for Australia's power needs include coal, natural gas and a range of renewables rather than nuclear, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday.
Smitherman is intentionally creating an uneven playing field, and with good reason. If his plan works, Ontario would win both clean energy and desperately needed jobs.
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/718253--deal-could-undercut-ontario-s-green-energy-plan
brings together environmentalists, innovators, trade unionists and communities to discuss jobs, equity, social justice and environmental sustainability.
Sat. Nov. 7
Exhibition Place, Toronto
PeaceFlicks! Presents:
Tuesday, November 10 at 7 PM
at the NFB, 150 John St., at Richmond.
The Strangest Dream tells the story of Joseph Rotblat, the history of nuclear weapons, and the efforts of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs - an international movement Rotblat co-founded - to halt nuclear proliferation.