No Nukes News: Candu Doo Doo

Mon Feb 22 17:29:44 EST 2010

No Nukes News

Feb. 22, 2010

Uranium is the raw material of a power-elite who has taken Mother Earth's
every living creature hostage.

-          The late Petra Kelly, German Green Party

Nobody Can Undo the Doo Doo from a Candu let alone contain it. Tritium, the
radioactive sibling of hydrogen, is created by fissioning inside a CANDU
reactor. They use heavy water. Heavy water then becomes radioactive water.
Chemically there is no way to separate radioactive water from stable water.
Because Lake Ontario water provides the coolant water, it becomes populated
with radioactive water before it is released back into the Lake. Lake
Ontario is now a tritium dump. 

-          Tim Seitz

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Critics say Province is 'guessing' on Darlington price tag

Ontario Power Generation announced a reinvestment plan Tuesday which would
see a $300 million upgrade to allow Pickering to run for approximately
another decade, as well as the intention to refurbish the four reactors at
Darlington, to extend their lifetime to about 2050.  OPG officials say firm
costs can't be known until preliminary studies, set to be carried out over
the next four years, determine the scope of work to be completed during the
refurbishment. Rough, very preliminary estimates indicate refurbishment of
Darlington's four nuclear reactors, to extend their generation capability to
about 2050, will cost $6 billion to $10 billion, says Infrastructure and
Energy Minister Brad Duguid. 

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/durham/article/148621 

Price should be public, MPP says

Ontario electricity customers have the right to know the sticker price on
the refurbishment of the Darlington nuclear plant, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns
says.  "You don't make a multibillion-dollar decision based on a guess,"
Tabuns said Tuesday. "Either they're withholding numbers from the public or
they're making a guess. In either case, that's indefensible." 

http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2451845 

Note: According to OPG's news release, the restart of Pickering A Unit #1
was completed on time and on budget. This is not true! In 1999, OPG
estimated that the total cost of returning Pickering A Unit #1 to service
would be $213 million.  Its actual cost was 4.8 times greater at $1.016
billion. Looks like OPG is up to its old tricks of deceiving the tax-paying
public. If they want to upgrade Pickering and refurbish Darlington, they
should be upfront with the costs - no more low-balling, leaving Ontario's
electricity consumers to cover the inevitable cost overruns. Ontario Energy
Minister Brad Duguid should demand that the bids for the Pickering upgrade
and Darlington refurbishment be a fixed-price one - that is, any cost
overruns must not be passed on to Ontario's electricity consumers or
taxpayers.  This is the rule that former Energy Minister George Smitherman
established for the procurement process for two new nuclear reactors at
Darlington. As a result Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) was forced to submit
an honest price bid that reflected the true cost. When Smitherman saw AECL's
honest $26 billion price tag, he had sticker shock and cancelled the
procurement process. 

Action: Please ask our new Energy Minister,  <mailto:Brad.Duguid at ontario.ca>
Brad.Duguid at ontario.ca to protect consumers and taxpayers by applying the
Smitherman Rule to the proposed Pickering B upgrade and the Darlington
refurbishment - that is, both bids must be fixed-price - Ontario's
electricity consumers and taxpayers should not have to pay for nuclear cost
overruns. (Please cc me.)

- angela at cleanairalliance.org 

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Hundreds of workers potentially exposed to radiation at Bruce nuclear plant:
Watchdog

At least 217 workers at the Bruce Power nuclear plant northwest of Toronto
were potentially exposed to a release of radiation last November, possibly
the largest radioactive contamination in Canada, according to the country's
national nuclear watchdog.

It is believed to be one of the largest mass exposures to radiation at a
Canadian nuclear site.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nuclear-watchdog-investigates-pos
sible-mass-radiation-exposure/article1469970/?service=mobile

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Hundreds+workers+potentially+exposed+
radiation+nuclear+plant+Watchdog/2572560/story.html

Full test results for workers won't be ready for months

It will be another four months at least before all 192 workers who may have
been exposed to dangerous radiation at the Bruce A nuclear plant in southern
Ontario know whether their health has been jeopardized. Unusual levels of
radioactive particles in the air were first detected on Nov. 26 and Nov. 28
as workers for the private consortium were refurbishing feeder pipes inside
the vault of the dormant reactor. That work has now been halted.

http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2456615 

Alpha radiation surprise at Bruce 

An incident that may have exposed hundreds of workers at Bruce Power to low
levels of radiation has revealed an apparent gap in safety procedures at
Canadian nuclear facilities. 

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2456034 

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Ontario Power Generation confirms Pickering nuclear station to close in 10
years

Ontario Power Generation announced Tuesday that it will spend $300 million
to keep the Pickering nuclear station open for another decade before it's
mothballed, and will spend an undisclosed amount to refurbish the Darlington
nuclear station.

Greenpeace Canada applauded Ontario Power Generation for admitting it was
too costly to keep the Pickering nuclear station open for more than another
10 years. ``Today's announcement shows the cost estimates used to justify
this government's commitment to nuclear power are not credible at all, and
we should be revisiting the 2006 commitment to keep nuclear at 50 per cent
of the supply over the long term,'' Stensil said. ``It'll bankrupt us if we
implement that plan.'' 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/ontario-power-generatio
n-confirms-pickering-nuclear-station-to-close-in-10-years-84521182.html

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Climate: Eight Convenient Truths

By Amory B. Lovins

Electricity production is shifting rapidly and profoundly from giant coal-
and gas-fired and nuclear plants to "micropower"-cogenerating electricity
together with useful heat in factories and buildings, plus renewables (not
counting big hydro dams).

There's no business case for building nuclear plants-nor other central power
plants.

To the surprise of many, nuclear power's collapse is also good for climate
protection. New nuclear plants could save carbon, but two to 20 times less
per dollar, and 20 to 40 times less per year, than buying the market winners
instead-micropower and efficiency. If greenhouse-gas emissions are a
problem, we need the most solution per dollar and per year; anything less
will reduce and retard climate protection. We need judicious, not
indiscriminate, investment-best buys first. We don't need everything, we
can't afford everything, and every dollar and year we spend on one choice
excludes other choices.

http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Climate-+Eight+Convenient+Truths 

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Why Obama's Nuclear Bet Won't Pay Off

Eventually, extravagant government largesse might create a nuclear rebirth
of sorts - but it might end up strangling better solutions in their cribs or
prevent them from ever being born.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1964846,00.html

Obama Pledges Billions for 20th Century's Most Expensive Technological
Failure -- Nuclear Power

Obama has announced some $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for two new
reactors planned for Georgia, which are unable to withstand natural
cataclysms like hurricanes. 

As Vermont seethes with radioactive contamination and the Democratic Party
crumbles, Barack Obama has plunged into the atomic abyss.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/145718

Obama's latest bipartisan outreach: nuclear energy

http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/ap/obamas-latest-bipartisan-outreach-nucl
ear-energy-84501797.html 

Obama's nuclear power push faces obstacle: Waste 

President Obama's announcement Tuesday of loan guarantees for nuclear power
plants may encourage new construction, but a problem still remains that has
plagued atomic energy for decades: what to do with nuclear waste?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/16/obama.nuclear.power/?hpt=Sbin 

Barack Obama is going nuclear

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now

>From economics, to the environment, to the prevention of nuclear threats,
Obama's nuclear loan guarantees fail on all counts.

http://www.rabble.ca/columnists/2010/02/barack-obama-going-nuclear 

Obama's Nuclear Boondoggle

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/02/obama-goes-nuclear 

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Leak Continues at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Bad news continues to flow from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Levels of radioactive contamination are growing in several on-site wells at
the power plant, according to the Vermont Department of Health (VDH).
Vermont Senate vote on closing nuclear plant could come next week.

http://trueslant.com/oshagraydavidson/2010/02/18/leak-continues-at-vermont-y
ankee-nuclear-power-plant/ 

VT Nuclear Plant Leaking- Industry Faces Concern Nationwide

As President Obama advocates expansion of America's nuclear power industry,
pushing for billions of dollars in federal incentives and announcing plans
to build the first nuclear plant in decades, a long-running facility in
Vermont is leaking a cancer causing carcinogen. The Vermont Yankee nuclear
power plant is leaking possibly dangerous levels of tritium, a radioactive
byproduct of the nuclear process.

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/19/vt-nuclear-plant-leaking-indus
try-faces-concern-nationwide/?test=latestnews 

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Nuclear Power: No Answer to Climate Change

http://www.cane.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Why-nuclear-power-is-not-t
he-answer.pdf 

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The impacts of uranium mining on indigenous communities

Uranium mining speculation lacks comprehensive health and safety regulations
while the ethics of Canadian exported uranium, which can lead to depleted
uranium used in zones of war, needs greater scrutiny. Abandoned uranium
mines and the subsequent hazards experienced in forgotten communities have
also been virtually ignored in Canada leading to tragic, unmitigated
circumstances. 

http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload
<http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8
041&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0>
&name=News&file=article&sid=8041&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 

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Unsuccessful 'Fast Breeder' Is No Solution for Long-Term Reactor Waste
Disposal Issues

After Over $50 Billion Spent by U.S., Japan, Russia, UK, India and France,
No Commercial Model Found

High Cost, Unreliability, Major Safety Problems and Proliferation Risks All
Seen as Major Barriers to Use

<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/report--unsuccessful-fast-breeder-i
s-no-solution-for-long-term-reactor-waste-disposal-issues-84610032.html>
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/report--unsuccessful-fast-breeder-is
-no-solution-for-long-term-reactor-waste-disposal-issues-84610032.html

Fourth generation nuclear power may not be the clean energy silver bullet 

http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2010/02/18/fourth-generation-nuclear-power
-may-not-be-the-clean-energy-silver-bullet/ 

Pebble Bed Modular Reactor facing massive cuts

South Africa has stopped funding the development of the pebble bed modular
reactor, leaving the project company looking at 75% cuts in staff.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C_PBMR_facing_massive_cuts_1802101.html 

Background: More evidence that the wheels are coming off the "nuclear
renaissance" concept.  When large reactors ran into financial roadblocks due
to "sticker shock", many nuclear enthusiasts started touting small reactors
as the answer, including the pebble bed reactor concept for Alberta's tar
sands industry. Think again, folks. - Gordon Edwards.

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10 surprisingly easy sources of alternative energy - Unconventional energy

Sure, you've heard of wind and solar power, biofuels, hydroelectric, tidal
and wave power, but Mother Nature provides an endless bounty of alternative
energy sources beyond those that we use today. Clean, green energy is all
around us in the natural world, and scientists have only begun to answer the
question of how to tap it. Here's a list of 10 practical sources of
alternative energy you've probably never heard of.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/photos/10-unconventional-alternative
-energy-sources-youve-never-heard-3#image 

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WeConserveTV

The Conservation Council of Ontario is proud to announce that we will soon
launch Canada's first video website devoted exclusively to conservation. Be
one of the first to take part in our project by making a video to celebrate
your project or identify your local challenge. Posting a video is easy!
Simply follow the instructions www.weconservetv.ca
<http://www.weconservetv.ca/> 

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Wind Energy taking off worldwide

The Global Wind Energy Council, a trade association based in Brussels,
estimates that wind power capacity grew by 31 percent worldwide in 2009.
According to the trade group, more than 500,000 people are now employed by
the wind power industry around the world, and the market for wind turbine
installations last year was worth about $63 billion. 

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/41025 

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Coal quickly losing power

Old King Coal should abdicate now, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance says. 

Set to be shuttered by 2014, the province's four remaining coal-fired
electricity generating plants could in fact be closed now, largely because
the province is using less power than expected. 

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/02/18/12938971.html 

For more info: http://www.cleanairalliance.org/node/808 

http://www.cleanairalliance.org/files/active/0/phaseout%20progress%202010.pd
f 

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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

 <mailto:angela at cleanairalliance.org> angela at cleanairalliance.org

 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/> www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca

 <http://www.cleanairalliance.org/> www.cleanairalliance.org 

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