No Nukes News: dim outlook for nuke industry

Thu Feb 11 14:51:46 EST 2010

No Nukes News

Feb. 8, 2010

No degree of prosperity could justify the accumulation of large amounts of
highly toxic substances which nobody knows how to make "safe" and which
remain an incalculable danger to the whole of creation for historical or
even geological ages.  

-E.F. Schumacher

Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water!

-  Albert Einstein

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My Nuclear Neighbour

The Nature of Things with David Suzuki

Premieres: Thursday, February 11, at 8 p.m. on CBC Television

Repeating: Thursday Feb. 18, 10 p.m. ET/PT in CBC News Network

Imagine that one morning you wake up to find out your nearest neighbour may
be a nuclear power plant. This is the story about two women who travel from
their farms in Peace River, Alberta to Kincardine, Ontario searching for
answers to questions that are devastating their families and threatening
their once harmonious community.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2010/mynuclearneighbour/ 

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Dim outlook for nuke industry

Think-tank says worldwide demand for nuclear energy unlikely to grow much
before 2030, if at all

"Most promoters and critics agree that the economics of nuclear power is the
single most important constraint on nuclear expansion. The economics are
worsening rather than improving, especially as a result of the recent global
financial and economic turmoil."

Fréchette said nuclear power is also facing stiffer competition from
alternatives such as wind, solar, energy efficiency and conservation, and
the move to build smart grids that allow smaller sources of power to be
located closer to consumers. "New approaches to distributing electricity are
not going to be very favourable to nuclear," she said.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/760858--dim-outlook-for-nuke-industr
y 

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No Major Nuclear Revival by 2030, Says CIGI Report, Ottawa

A significant expansion of nuclear energy worldwide is unlikely to occur
before 2030. This provides a window of opportunity to urgently fix the
currently inadequate system for governing nuclear energy to avoid accidents,
nuclear terrorism and weapons proliferation.

These are the key findings of the three-and-a-half year Nuclear Energy
Futures project released today by The Centre for International Governance
Innovation (CIGI) in Ottawa. 

http://au.sys-con.com/node/1273879

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Nuclear's CO2 cost 'will climb'

The case for nuclear power as a low carbon energy source to replace fossil
fuels has been challenged in a new report by Australian academics.

It suggests greenhouse emissions from the mining of uranium - on which
nuclear power relies - are on the rise. Availability of high-grade uranium
ore is set to decline with time, it says, making the fuel less
environmentally friendly and more costly to extract.

A significant proportion of greenhouse emissions from nuclear power stem
from the fuel supply stage, which includes uranium mining, milling,
enrichment and fuel manufacturing. Others sources of carbon include
construction of the plant - including the manufacturing of steel and
concrete materials - and decomissioning.

 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7371645.stm>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7371645.stm

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A Complementary Solution for Production of Medical Isotopes 

Researchers from Sherbrooke succeed in producing technetium 99m with a
cyclotron

Researchers at the CHUS's Centre de recherche clinique Étienne-Le Bel
(CRCELB) and the Université de Sherbrooke, in collaboration with Advanced
Cyclotron Systems Inc. in Richmond, have just demonstrated that technetium
99m can be produced using a cyclotron. Diagnostic testing indicates that
cyclotron-produced technetium 99m is fully equivalent to that obtained from
nuclear reactor, such as the Chalk River facility.

http://www.advancedcyclotron.com/news/complementary-solution-production-medi
cal-isotopes-researchers-sherbrooke-succeed-producing-tec

Background:  Nuclear proponents often point to nuclear medicine as an area
where nuclear reactors fuelled with uranium are needed to produce medical
isotopes.  But the use of isotopes in nuclear medicine preceeded the first
nuclear reactors by many decades.  Furthermore, medical isotopes can be
produced without reactors by using "particle accelerators" which do not have
the safety, radioactive waste and weapons-proliferation problems associated
with nuclear reactors. - Gordon Edwards

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Why Is Obama Trying to Prop Up a Doomed 'Nuclear Renaissance'?

Obama is poised to vastly expand a bitterly contested nuclear loan guarantee
program that may cost far more than expected, both financially and
politically. 

http://www.alternet.org/environment/145493/why_is_obama_trying_to_prop_up_a_
doomed_'nuclear_renaissance'

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Obama's new climate card: nuclear power

President Barack Obama is endorsing nuclear energy like never before, trying
to win over Republicans and moderate Democrats on climate and energy
legislation.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/msnbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=23369654

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Obama’s Nuclear Generation Gap?

Amory Lovins, a leading sustainable energy expert with the
<http://www.rmi.org/rmi/> Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, argues that
there is no economic, environmental or security rationale for the kinds of
Gen IV reactors most often promoted, including fast reactors. In a recent
analysis titled “
<http://www.rmi.org/rmi/Library/2009-07_NuclearSameOldStory> ‘New’ Nuclear
Reactors, Same Old Story,” Lovins points out that these reactors are touted
for their ability to burn plutonium, a radioactive waste product created in
currently operating nuclear power plants. However, that would require
plutonium reprocessing facilities, which creates a whole other bunch of
thorny problems.

http://afdportland.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/the-greening-of-nuclear-fact-or-
fiction/

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Leaks imperil nuclear industry

The nuclear industry, once an environmental pariah, is recasting itself as
green as it attempts to extend the life of many power plants and build new
ones. But a leak of radioactive water at Vermont Yankee, along with similar
incidents at more than 20 other US nuclear plants in recent years, has
kindled doubts about the reliability, durability, and maintenance of the
nation’s aging nuclear installations.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2010/01/31/leaks_imperil_n
uclear_industry/?page=1 

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The nuclear option is hardly a viable one

Nuclear power is heavily subsidized by taxpayers and ratepayers, is prone to
delay and cost overruns, and incurs radioactive risks, including the
apparent impossibility of safely storing radioactive waste. Nuclear reactors
consume vast quantities of precious water. Investing billions of dollars in
more nuclear power would divert funding that would be better spent on energy
efficiency and safer, cleaner renewable energy such as solar, wind and
geothermal.

In terms of climate, even if nuclear power were a good idea, it would be
impossible to build enough reactors in time to make a significant reduction
in carbon emissions.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6843645.html 

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Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and sucking up Canadian money

Thirteen years after Canada and other nations pledged $768-million to render
the destroyed nuclear reactor safe, the cost has ballooned to $2-billion and
the job still isn't done.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/chernobyl-leaking-radiation-and-su
cking-up-canadian-money/article1454040/

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Ontario Mandates ‘Drying For Freedom’

Ontario residents can now hang their clothes and linens outside to dry after
the Premier lifted the ban on outdoor clotheslines. Previously there were
restrictions in many Ontario subdivisions because clotheslines were
considered unsightly. The province's new regulation will overrule
neighbourhood or lease rules.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said the move is aimed at curbing use of
energy-sucking dryers, which burn up to six per cent of Ontario's power.

This recent change is one of many in a movement pushing for less
restrictions in the use of clothes lines. A new documentary, Drying For
Freedom, highlights the banning of clothes lines in over 50 million homes in
the United States, translating 5 billion dollars a year in electricity
bills. The documentary follows the battle for the right to dry clothes
asking why drying clothes became an environmental and social catastrophe and
questions clotheslines being banned.
Visit Let's Hang Out <http://www.letshangoutcanada.com/>  Canada website
Visit Drying For Freedom <http://www.dryingforfreedom.com/>  website
View January 2010 The Sierra Club News Letter
<http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca/quick-links/publications/publications/sierra-li
fe-e-newsletter/Issue%2069%2C%20January%202010%20-%20Endangered%20Caribou%2C
%20Transition%20Towns%20and%20Laundry%20Lines.pdf> 

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Obama pulls plug on Yucca 

Decision may end two decades of national debate over nuclear waste disposal
in Nevada

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2010/Feb-03-Wed-2010/news/34092986.html

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Ban the bomb spirit lives on

The Ban the Bomb movement isn't dead. It strutted its stuff in Paris this
week at a conference of nuclear activists, under the banner of the Global
Zero campaign. Delegates recalled the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
made the case for a world rid of nuclear weapons. They also won friends in
high places.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/760235--ban-the-bomb-spiri
t-lives-on

It's time to set course for global zero

A bold initiative to eliminate nuclear weapons merits more than a chilly
French politeness

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/its-time-to-set-the-course-for-
global-zero/article1455374/

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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/>  

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