No Nukes News - from around the world

Fri Sep 4 23:31:29 EDT 2009

No Nuke News

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Leaflet Mania

Remember that $26 billion dollar leaflet so many of you helped  
distribute throughout the summer? We did a Freedom of Information  
request to find out how many postcards Energy Minister Smitherman  
received, and we learned that he received 2069! And that’s a LOT!  
Surely that influenced his decision to put the $26 billion dollar  
Darlington bid on hold. Congratulations to all who sent in leaflets  
and who distributed them to your friends, colleagues and residents of  
Toronto Centre riding.

Help us inform the voters in St. Paul’s riding (central Toronto) that  
renewable energy can meet all our electricity needs. No more nuclear  
bail-outs!
If you can spare 3 hours to distribute leaflets in the next 2 weeks,  
please let me know. The by-election date is Sept. 17th.
Or if you’d like to order some to be mailed to you anywhere in  
Canada, just say the word.

Our new leaflets include 2 postcards to send, one to Energy Minister  
Smitherman and one to Prime Minister Harper asking him to not  
subsidize ON nukes.
http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/OntarioOption_0709_v3.pdf

Thank you for your help…
angela at cleanairalliance.org

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Say no to a federal nuclear bailout

If you haven’t already done so, send a message to Prime Minister  
Stephen Harper and the other federal leaders (Liberal Leader Michael  
Ignatieff, NDP Leader Jack Layton, BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe and Green  
Party leader Elizabeth May) to express your opposition to more  
federal taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power.  It’ll just take you  
one minute, and you’ll feel great afterward. It’s easy – click here:

http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/send_a_message.php

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Nfld. project fuels hopes for east-west power grid

In Canada, we've talked for years about creating an east-west grid  
that could tap clean hydroelectric resources in Manitoba,  
Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec, and carry it to jurisdictions  
in need. Ontario could certainly find itself needy, given that in  
about five years all our coal plants will be phased out and older  
nuclear plants will need to be retired or refurbished.

In addition to hydroelectric resources, Nalcor figures it can also  
develop 5, 000 megawatts of wind projects in the largely uninhabited  
area surrounding Lower Churchill.

There's always nuclear, but that's proving increasingly expensive,  
risky and inflexible for the type of power Ontario needs. It also  
takes 10 years to build and comes with waste-management problems that  
are not yet resolved. Ontario could do a deal to import more power  
from Quebec, but that needn't preclude a separate deal with Nalcor.

http://www.thestar.com/article/688545

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Ont. Power Generation to close four coal-fuelled power units in 2010

Ontario's pledge to shut down sections of two coal-fired generating  
stations next year was hailed Thursday by environmental groups who  
called on the government to go even further and shutter all coal- 
burning plants by the 2011 election.

http://www.thefreepress.ca/article/GB/20090903/CP10/309039922/-1/ 
fernie/ont-power-generation-to-close-four-coal-fuelled-power-units- 
in-2010&template=cpArt

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Provisions on Finnish reactor wreck Areva profits

The financial risks of nuclear power were cast into sharp relief  
yesterday as Areva, the French state-owned group, revealed new  
provisions on its troubled Finnish reactor project that virtually  
wiped out interim operating profits. ["Provision" is a term for  
"liability" in accounting: GE]

The latest provision brings to 2.3 billion euros the charges Areva  
has been forced to take, making the total cost of what is becoming  
the flagship for a new generation of heavy duty nuclear reactors some  
5.3 billion euros.

The group had originally estimated the cost at 3 billion euros.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5f709bc-9690-11de-84d1-00144feabdc0.html
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/

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Tractor trek flags German nuclear split before vote

Farm tractors are rumbling across Germany to a mass anti-nuclear  
rally in Berlin at the weekend which promises to thrust the divisive  
issue into the federal election campaign weeks before polling day.

The future of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants, due to be shut down  
by the early 2020s, is one of the major issues that divides  
Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives from the Social Democrats  
(SPD) of her challenger, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Opinion polls show Germans oppose nuclear power, often by large  
majorities.

In 2001, the SPD pushed through legislation with their coalition  
partners the Greens to phase out the use of nuclear power in the  
world's third largest economy within two decades, despite protests  
from industry and utilities.

The CDU and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union,  
want to reverse the phase-out.

In their election manifestos, the SPD says it wants 50 percent of  
Germany's power to come from renewables by 2030 and the Greens are  
targeting 40 percent from renewables by 2020.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5824MH20090903? 
feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=1 
0522

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Attempts to Overturn Nuclear Bans Fail in Six States

West Virginia is not the only state that declined to overturn a ban  
on nuclear power this year.
As the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers licensing  
applications for new nuclear generation in 14 states, attempts to  
overturn explicit or effective bans failed in six other states in  
2009, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource  
Service.

"Things will be even tougher for their state (nuclear) lobbyists in  
2010 now that the freeze on Yucca Mountain has taken long-term waste  
disposal off the table," said NIRS Executive Director Michael Mariotte.

The last new nuclear power generation unit to be ordered in the U.S.  
was in 1978, just before the partial core meltdown at Three Mile  
Island in 1979.

Since that time, first California and then about a dozen states  
passed laws that outright or effectively banned new nuclear generation.

The code requires at least 24 months' prior operation of a national  
facility "which safely, successfully and permanently disposes of any  
and all radioactive wastes associated with operating any such nuclear  
power plant, nuclear factory or nuclear electric power generating  
plant."

That condition has never been met.

And because the federal government withdrew its support for the Yucca  
Mountain facility earlier this year, there is no process in place for  
it ever to be met.

http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=65865

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Pedal for the Planet

Calling all Toronto cyclists:
Join the two-wheelers that are traversing the country on their way to  
Ottawa to pressure the feds to take action on climate change!

Monday Sept. 7, Labour Day
Union Station, 9 a.m. meet at Union Station plaza for local spin to  
Leslie St. Spit and back
Go Train departs at 10:45 am bound for Pickering. From Pickering,  
Pedal for the Planet riders will cycle to Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa,  
then camp at Darlington Provincial Park. Campers need to bring their  
own tent, mat and sleeping bag.
The cost of GO will be covered for riders who will continue on past  
this first day. Day only riders must cover their own cost of GO.
There are no registration fees, but the registration form is  
available at www.kyotoplus.ca/pedal
For more info: Ted Perry 416 802 5913
(Note: A support vehicle driver is needed to accompany the ride – if  
you’re available, contact Ted above.)

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Climate Change is Coming to Town – Film Festival

http://www.climatechangeiscomingtotown.net/schedule.html

Tues. Sept. 3 – Sun. Sept. 13th
Bloor Cinema, Toronto
Films and Panels
$5
.
The goal of the film festival is to raise awareness of climate change  
and its impact on the earth system and the human societies. We are at  
a critical stage of the UNFCCC negotiation which will conclude in  
Copenhagen December this year. Looking at the state of the climate  
change, the result of the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen will have long  
term and serious effect on the future of humanity and many other  
species. We try to inform the public about the situation we are at,  
and the effect of our collective action or inaction on the future  
generations to come.

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Tuesday, September 8th
7:00 pm Free Workshop: B1170 40 St. George Street
Casualty of Climate Change: Tuvalu, a Disappearing Nation

Wednesday, September 9th Bloor Cinema $5
6:45 pm Climate Experience—Short Film Series
Panel: Climate Experience

Thursday, September 10th Bloor Cinema $5
6:45 pm Climate Change and Women—Short Film Series,
Film: Robert, Mary and Katrina
Panel: Climate Change and Women, and the Marginalized Groups

Friday, September 11th Bloor Cinema $5
6:45 pm Film: The Venus Theory
Panel: State of Climate Change, and State of Climate Change UNFCCC  
Negotiation

Saturday, September 12th Bloor Cinema
1:00 pm $5 Film: H2Oil
Panel: Tar Sands and Climate Justice

6:00 pm Bloor Cinema $5
Film: The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise
Panel: Re-examine Humanity

Sunday, September 13th Bloor Cinema $5
1:00 pm Film: Weather Report
Panel: Our Vision, and What We Should Do

http://www.climatechangeiscomingtotown.net

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Nuclear Power - Hope or Hoax?
Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility  
addresses a large crowd of concerned Alberta citizens. Tar sands  
operations are drawing an increasing amount of our domestic allotment  
of conventional fossil fuels (especially natural gas, commonly used  
for heating fuel in our extreme winter conditions) to create fuels  
and feedstock for export. As Alberta's natural gas production has  
apparently peaked, the industry is looking to develop large scale,  
alternative energy sources for ongoing extraction of low-quality  
bitumen from the sands of northern Alberta. An excellent 9-part video  
series with Canada’s pre-eminent anti-nuclear spokesperson.

http://rbcc.ca/Gordon-Edwards-videos.shtml

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Angela Bischoff
Outreach Director
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
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