No Nukes News: here's to a non-nuclear 2010!
Angela Bischoff - OCAA
angela at cleanairalliance.org
Fri Jan 8 18:48:13 EST 2010
No Nukes News
Jan. 8, 2010
Here's to a non-nuclear and sustainable 2010!
-angela
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Jump on board!
1. A provincial by-election has been called for Feb. 4 in
Toronto-Centre. The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is calling for a ramped-up
coal phase-out by June, 2010. We'll be surveying all the candidates, and
distributing leaflets with their responses to constituents in the riding at
subway stations etc. If you're up for helping, let me know.
2. Also, we've distributed leaflets
http://ontariosgreenfuture.ca/CostlyNukes_12_09.pdf to about 80% of the
homes in Iggy's riding (Etobicoke-Lakeshore). If you're up for helping
complete this task, let me know.
Thanks for all your support!
-a
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Canada's dirty nuclear secret
With Atomic Accomplice: How Canada Deals in Deadly Deceit, Mr. McKay
documents the official secrecy that has protected Canada's nuclear industry
from public scrutiny for two generations - and demonstrates why Canadian
environmentalists have much more to worry about than global warming.
For 60 years, he says, Canada has participated in the global dispersal of
weapons-related elements, technologies and secrets. Indeed, Canada has
helped in the making of nuclear bombs for the United States, Britain,
Russia, France, Israel, India and Pakistan and has "dealt atomic supplies
and secrets" to Argentina, Taiwan, Romania, South Korea and Communist China.
Canada is now the world's leader in uranium exports and, therefore, the
world's leader in potential plutonium proliferation. These exports generate
$1-billion a year in Canadian cash flow but bequeath to the world enough
fissile material to make 5,000 nuclear warheads every year.
Read full book review here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/canadas-dirty-n
uclear-secret/article1416520/
Atomic Accomplice is available online at www.paulmckay.com OR from the OCAA
office (that's me!).
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AECL seeks enriched uranium used to make isotopes
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/AECL+readies+restart+Chalk+River+ailing+re
actor/2409976/story.html
Note: The reason why the world is in a tizzy over Iran and its uranium
enrichment program is that this technology can be used to make highly
enriched uranium (HEU) and thus provide an avenue to the fabrication of
atomic bombs.
For many years now, the US and other nations have been trying to eliminate
all traffic in HEU because of the severe proliferation risk it poses (any
criminal or terrorist organization acquiring enough HEU -- about 50 kg --
could make a very powerful atomic bomb -- small enough to be carried in the
trunk of an automobile).
Thus the US has been forcing all research reactors in North America to
convert from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) which cannot be used as an
explosive.
However, Chalk River insists on continuing to demand HEU for the production
of medical isotopes, even though these isotopes can be produced using
low-enriched uranium (Argentina does so for example) and even though AECL
promised years ago to work towards the elimination of HEU as an ingredient
in their isotope production program.
Canada is setting a very bad example for the rest of the world in allowing
AECL to continue to import, stockpile and use highly enriched uranium.
After all if AECL can do it, why can't any other research agency in the
world do it too? The world will not long tolerate a double standard like
this.
The Canadian government should crack the whip and order AECL to convert to
the use of low enriched uranium, starting now.
- Gordon Edwards.
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Clearly the struggle to keep Saskatchewan nuclear free isn't over just yet.
-a
Research reactor will allow U of Sask to reach potential
But included in the Saskatchewan Party government's announcement Thursday
was support for the Canadian Neutron Source -- a multipurpose research
reactor proposed to be built on the University of Saskatchewan campus not
only to help supply the global demand for medical isotopes, but to take over
as Canada's primary nuclear research facility.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Research+reactor+will+allow+reach+poten
tial/2362109/story.html
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Nuclear plant spills tritium into lake
Workers at the Darlington nuclear station filled the wrong tank with a
cocktail of water and a radioactive isotope Monday, spilling more than 200,
000 litres into Lake Ontario.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/742225--nuclear-plant-spills-tri
tium-into-lake?bn=1
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Nine out of Ten are Opposed to Uranium Exploration in the Area of Sept-Iles,
Quebec
(translated) Nine out of ten residents of Sept-Iles are opposed to uranium
exploration in the area of the municipality. Those are the results of an
opinion poll commissioned by the City.
Furthermore, support for a moratorium on all uranium exploration and mining
projects throughout Quebec reached 87 percent.
http://nordest.canoe.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=124005
<http://nordest.canoe.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=124005&id=12
67&classif=Derni%E8re+heure> &id=1267&classif=Derni%E8re+heure
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New problem with Lepreau refurbishment
The refurbishment of Point Lepreau, which is already about 16 months behind
schedule, has run into a new problem involving the nuclear reactor's
calandria tubes, officials have confirmed.
Point Lepreau is the first Candu-6 reactor to undergo a complete gutting and
rebuild. It was intended to be a showcase for AECL to display its ability to
revive the 1980s-era reactors.
The project started running into problems in October, 2008, when two
$10-million turbines were accidentally dropped into Saint John Harbour.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/01/06/nb-lepreau-refurb-pr
oblems.html
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New Jersey nuclear plant shut down because of ice in Delaware River
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/new_jersey_nuclear_plant_shut.html
Brazilian mayor seeks shutdown of nuclear power plant after floods
http://www.star-telegram.com/279/story/1865830.html
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<http://antinuclear.net/2009/12/24/nuclear-power-declining-not-reviving-in-u
sa/> Nuclear power declining, not reviving, in USA
In upstate New York, the Unistar Nuclear Energy front group asked the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its application to build a reactor at
Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, in Texas, the San Antonio city council's
deliberations over building two new reactors has disintegrated into
recriminations, resignations and firings over a multi-billion-dollar price
jump in projected cost estimates, a furor that could doom reactor
construction there as well. And in Vermont, Entergy has threatened to shut
its Yankee reactor if the legislature does not approve a complex maneuver
that would allow its owners to escape certain financial liabilities.
Throughout the US, while the corporate media hypes a "renaissance" of new
nukes, facts on the ground say the opposite is happening. The longer that
trend continues, the more likely we are to win a world powered by the
Solartopian technologies that really work, including wind, solar,
geothermal, sustainable bio-fuels, increased efficiency/conservation, and
more.
http://antinuclear.net/2009/12/24/nuclear-power-declining-not-reviving-in-us
a/
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The Answer Ain't Nuclear
"C" for Chernobyl: site of the worst nuclear accident in history nearly a
quarter of a century ago. That wretched city inadvertently became the
perfect
<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/05/friday-cocktail-magnetic-fridges
-nuclear-soybeans-and-amazing-invisible-endanger> Frankenstein laboratory
for studying the long-term behavior of radiation in the wild.
Despite the passage of 23 years, normalcy is not returning to Chernobyl
nearly as fast as predicted. Specifically, the
<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/153/3735/525> cesium 137 in
Chernobyl's soils isn't decaying as fast as its 30-year half-life.
And so the idea that Ukraine could repopulate the
<http://motherjones.com/photoessays/2006/05/chernobyl-20-years-later>
Chernobyl dead zone in "only" 180 to 320 years is proving pure fantasy.
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/12/answer-aint-nuclear
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Exposing Canada's War Industry Profiteers
The Canadian Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) has just published a
50-page report called "CANSEC: War is Business."
Order a copy or subscribe here: http://coat.ncf.ca/
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To kick off this new year, we are pleased to present you with a very special
issue of The Nuclear Monitor (issue # 700/701). Produced in cooperation with
our friends at WISE (World Information Service on Energy) and WECF (Women in
Europe for a Common Future), this 40-page booklet is titled:
Nuclear Power: The Critical Question
First hand reports from the frontlines of the nuclear fuel chain.
Download it here: http://ccnr.org/WECF_6_final.pdf (1.28 MB)
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Paris to compensate nuclear victims
France's parliament has passed a law to compensate victims of nuclear tests
in Algeria and the South Pacific.
After decades of complaints by people suffering from radiation-related
illnesses, France's senate on Tuesday removed the final legislative hurdle
and approved paying off victims of its atomic testing.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/12/2009122313244723672.html
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US Intelligence Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the
Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do
experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an
atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence
Agency official.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of
expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran
and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear programme
targets if diplomacy fails.
http://www.truthout.org/topstories/122809vh4
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Pakistan Police: Detained Americans Had Maps Of Area Where Nuclear Power
Plant Located
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/26/ap/asia/main6024195.shtml
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The Nuclear Reaction Awards 2009: The Honest, We're Not Making This Up Award
As the year comes to its close we'd like to recognise those who have helped
make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it
is today.
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/12/the_nuclear_reaction_a
wards_20_8.html
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Utah Supreme Court Puts Kibosh on Coal Plant
http://cleantechnica.com/2009/12/05/utah-surpreme-court-puts-kibosh-on-coal-
plant/#more-4127
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Wind power production remains larger than nuclear in Spain
Wind energy produced 54% of electricity demand on 30 December. Yesterday,
wind power and hydro provided 60% of electricity consumption in Spain.
http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=3172
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$100M announced for solar energy project in the Sault
Financing and land acquisitions are in place to move forward with the
$100-million first phase of a 20-megawatt solar energy project in Sault Ste.
Marie. Once built, it will provide power for up to 8,000 homes.
http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Around-the-North/100107/$100M-announc
ed-for-solar-energy-project-in-the-Sault614.aspx
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2 weeks left to invest in one of ON's first new Community Power projects
under the Green Energy Act
Thanks to a world-class Green Energy Act and feed-in tariff programs,
homeowners, businesses and communities all across the province are now hard
at work building green energy projects in their own backyards. One such
pioneering project that has recently received media
<http://www.ontario-sea.org/EbulletinLink.asp?MailingID=115347&LinkID=140&La
ng=1> coverage is an initiative of the Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist
Congregation to install a 20 kW solar array on the roof of its Toronto
church.
The Congregation is offering the public the chance to invest in its
grid-tied photovoltaic array by purchasing debentures in increments of $1000
that will pay 5% interest annually for 20 years. Already, more than half of
the 110 debentures have been sold but there is still time to invest. The
deadline to buy a debenture is January 20th - only two weeks away!
For more information about the terms and conditions, please visit the
Congregation's website at http://www.nuuc.ca/solarpanels.htm or contact Rick
Salay, chair of the Congregation's greening committee, at
rsalay at sympatico.ca.
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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 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/>
www.cleanairalliance.org <http://www.cleanairalliance.org/>
<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48852021264&ref=ts> Our Facebook
Group
<http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/petition.php> Sign Our Petition
<http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/nonukesnews.php> No Nukes News
<http://cleanairalliance.org/get_involved_donate>
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