No Nukes News - by-election called!

Bischoff Angela greenspi at web.ca
Thu Aug 20 21:13:11 EDT 2009





No Nukes News
Aug. 19, 2009

Quote of the Week:

  "This is just a new way of farming. We're farming energy," Jon  
Kieran said of the field that was thick with corn this time last year.

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Let the Race Begin

The by-election in St. Paul’s (central Toronto riding) was just  
announced for Sept. 17th – join in the fun! Elections are an  
incredible opportunity to reach out to the electorate. Voters are  
alert, and candidates and their parties are paying attention to  
voters’ concerns.

Ontario’s electricity system is at a crossroad – whether we go  
nuclear or renewable is a key public policy issue, particularly given  
the financial challenges facing the province.

OCAA is aiming to make Ontario’s energy future an election issue  
through door-to-door canvassing/leafleting, subway station blitzes,  
candidates questionnaire, and more. Help us get the word out!

Let me know if you can spare an evening/afternoon or 2 over the next  
4 weeks and I’ll set you up. Thank you!

angela at cleanairalliance.org

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Canada loses out as U.S. ups green ante
The Obama administration's titanic $60 billion spending plan for the  
U.S. clean energy sector is luring investors away from green  
businesses in Canada, threatening the industry's growth here.
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE57G2HH20090817

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Storing nuclear waste a $24-billion problem

There are two million high-level radioactive fuel bundles sitting at  
temporary storage sites in Canada, as the Nuclear Waste Management  
Organization wrestles with the mandate of finding a community to host  
a central storage facility for the waste for perhaps tens of  
thousands of years.

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=NDU1NjQ1OQ==

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Solar farm takes root in Arnprior

"This is just a new way of farming. We're farming energy," Jon Kieran  
said of the field that was thick with corn this time last year.

He said by year's end the steel posts will support 312,000 solar  
panels and form the largest solar farm of its kind in Canada. At peak  
capacity it will produce 20 MW -- enough energy to power 7,000  
households.

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2009/08/16/10480806.html

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Lavish US Lobbying Pushes Nuclear Energy

Climate change and the resulting need for low-carbon energy sources  
is driving the current interest in nuclear energy despite the  
industry's near universal legacy of staggering cost-overruns,  
technical difficulties and dependence on enormous government subsidies.

Government interest in new nuclear energy plants seems far more  
political than practical or economic in light of the fact that  
Europe's latest nuclear plant under construction in Finland is four  
years behind schedule and 50 to 70 percent over budget.

Any claims that nuclear is a viable low-carbon or clean energy source  
are negated by its extraordinary costs that have increased at least  
five-fold in the past decade.

"Nuclear energy has always been heavily subsidised by governments  
around the world," Ellen Vancko, a nuclear energy analyst at the  
Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based non governmental  
organisation.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47906

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Nuclear Steals Billions from Other Technologies
Why is nuclear energy back on the table?

One reason is a powerful U.S. lobby where 14 energy companies spent  
48 million dollars in 2007 alone to convince American politicians to  
give the industry huge loan guarantees because they cannot get  
financing anywhere else, says Ellen Vancko, a nuclear energy analyst  
at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S.-based non governmental  
organisation (NGO).

This lavish lobbying effort by the energy and nuclear power sector  
has been ongoing since the mid-1990s, according to the Center for  
Responsive Politics, a U.S. NGO and now totals at least 953 million  
dollars.

Even more has been spent to convince the public that nuclear is one  
of the keys to energy security so that there is significant public  
support for new reactors, a Gallup Environment Poll reported this year

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47907

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Reprocessing isn't the answer

By Richard L. Garwin, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
http://thebulletin.org/node/7654
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Comments on this piece on reprocessing by Dr. Gordon Edwards:

With the cancellation of the Yucca Mountain Project for the permanent  
geologic storage of irradiated nuclear fuel, many nuclear proponents  
are arguing in favor of "recycling" the used fuel to "extract the  
unused energy".  What they really mean is "reprocessing" the  
irradiated fuel in order to recover the man-made element plutonium,  
which constitutes
less than one percent of the irradiated fuel.

This article is written by a pro-nuclear scientist who has worked in  
the nuclear weapons program as well as in the peaceful nuclear power  
program.  He explains why reprocessing is not a sensible approach  
because it solves none of the problems that it pretends to address --  
for example, it does not solve or even reduce significantly the  
problem of storing high-level radioactive waste  forever.

What the article does not address is the enormous security risks  
attached to the commercialization of plutonium as a nuclear reactor  
fuel.  Plutonium is immediately weapons-usable; a major study by  
Sandia Labs has shown that just a handful of people, working for a  
short period of time without elaborate equipment, can extract any  
plutonium that has been incorporated into fresh nuclear fuel.  Once  
extracted, that plutonium can be used to make a nuclear explosive  
device of enormous destructive power.

See http://www.ccnr.org/plute_sandia.html
and  http://www.ccnr.org/Peaceful_Atom.html

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A nuclear boost
Energy Grit Leader Michael Ignatieff reaffirms support for nuclear power

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/760390
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No Nukes

Hawthorne confirmed that Bruce Power dropped plans to build two  
nuclear reactors in Nanticoke due to plummeting demand for  
electricity in Ontario. The business case that existed for new  
reactors last year disappeared over the winter due to a steep  
downturn in manufacturing brought on by the global recession.

With demand for electricity in Ontario faltering, Bruce Power will  
concentrate on refurbishing two reactors at the Bruce A facility in  
Tiverton.

http://simcoereformer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1706194&auth=

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Pedal for the Planet

Pedal for the Planet is a KYOTOplus initiative.
KYOTOplus is a national, non-partisan, petition-centered campaign for  
urgent federal government action on climate change.

This summer, people across Canada are joining Pedal for the Planet, a  
cross-country relay to call for action on climate change.
Cyclists will converge on Parliament Hill in mid-September, relaying  
our expectations for a Copenhagen climate treaty on to Ottawa.

Ontario: On August 24, a team of cyclists will leave Windsor,  
Ontario, heading to London, Stratford, Kitchener, Guelph, Burlington,  
Mississauga, Toronto, Pickering, Oshawa, Belleville, Kingston, Perth  
and Ottawa. To join the rides, contact Emma Cane, Sierra Club Ontario  
Chapter, emmac at sierraclub.ca, (416) 960-9606.

For more information, visit www.kyotoplus.ca/pedal. To sign the  
online petition, visit www.kyotoplus.ca.

Also, they're looking for a driver to accompany the ON tour. If  
you're free for the next few weeks, contact emmac at sierraclub.ca,  
(416) 960-9606.

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Angela Bischoff
Campaign Manager
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246
625 Church Street, #402
Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1
angela at cleanairalliance.org
www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca
www.cleanairalliance.org
Our Facebook Group
Sign Our Petition





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