No Nukes News: solar now cheaper than nuclear!

Wed Aug 4 13:03:22 EDT 2010

No Nukes News

August 4, 2010

Pass this onto a friend! - a

Solartopia, he says, "is the wonderful, positive way of approaching the
problem" of a polluted planet. "Don't just say `don't, don't, don't.' Say
`DO! DO! DO!'"  

"Wind power, solar power," Pete says. "This is the most exciting time in the
world to be living.... There has never been such an exciting time."

-          Pete Seeger, American folk musician

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Ontario: quarrels over green energy value

Now, prominent fiscal conservatives are complaining that recent green energy
contracts are poised to ignite steep power price hikes, and are an affront
to market pricing principles. This belies a deep disdain for the actual
facts, and a woeful lack of fiscal literacy.

In fact, the most enduring value of the landmark feed-in-tariff (FIT) model
Ontario has adopted is that it will finally impel the province toward
realistic (ie accurate) pricing, ignite electricity sector innovation which
has been stultified for decades, and replace a command-and-control edifice
which acted against both the economic and ecological interests of the
province.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=687
<http://www.straightgoods.ca/2010/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=687&Cookies=yes>
&Cookies=yes

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New report disputes the economic case for nuclear power in Saskatchewan

HIGHLIGHTS

- Nuclear power could triple the electricity rate for Sask. consumers.

- Nuclear power causes little to no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

- Nuclear power has the highest capital costs compared to other forms of
energy.

- The export market for surplus power has been greatly exaggerated.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/new-report-disputes-
economic-case-nuclear-power-saskatchewan 

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Feds to pay extra refit costs

In letter to prime minister, Premier Shawn Graham says he's pleased province
won't be on hook for unforeseen costs

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/actualites/article/1150839 

Note: Great, taxpayers across the country will be paying for New Brunswick's
ill-thought-out foray into nuclear refurbishment. - a 

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Nuke plan to ship waste on our lakes - The Ontario government has a
responsibility to protect our drinking water

by Andrea Horwath, NDP Leader, Ontario

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/07/28/14858291.html

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Chernobyl zone shows decline in biodiversity

The largest wildlife census of its kind conducted in Chernobyl has revealed
that mammals are declining in the exclusion zone surrounding the nuclear
power plant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10819027 

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Floating Chernobyls 

Russia has embarked on a scheme to building floating nuclear power plants to
be moored  off its coasts-especially off northern and eastern Russia-and
sold to nations around the world. 

http://www.counterpunch.org/grossman07272010.html 

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U.S. Wary of South Korea's Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel

Overshadowed by the continuing tension over
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/no
rthkorea/nuclear_program/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> North Korea's
nuclear program, another nuclear dispute is emerging on the Korean Peninsula
- this one between the United States and
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/so
uthkorea/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> South Korea. South Korea, which has no
oil reserves,  <http://www.khnp.co.kr/index_en.jsp> derives 40 percent of
its electricity from nuclear reactors and is running out of space to store
the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/asia/14seoul.html

Background:  Every nuclear reactor fueled with uranium produces plutonium as
a byproduct, and "all plutonium is good plutonium" when it comes to making
atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons. (See
http://ccnr.org/plute_sandia.html)

The process of extracting plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel is called
"reprocessing".  (Nuclear proponents now refer to it as "recycling", but in
fact less than one percent of the irradiated fuel is plutonium, and the high
level radioactive waste left behind remains an unsolved problem.  The term
"recycling"  is therefore quite misleading.)  

Once extracted, plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs at all levels of
technical sophistication.  Plutonium can also be used to fabricate fuel for
nuclear reactors, but if that fuel is stolen the plutonium can be easily
recovered as a nuclear-weapons-usable material by any well-equipped criminal
or terrorist organization.

Any country that has stockpiles of separated plutonium can quickly put
together an arsenal of atomic bombs or more sophisticated nuclear weapons
with little chance of detectionand little time for diplomacy or sanctions to
work.

-          Gordon Edwards.

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Nuclear Power: Dirty, Dangerous and Expensive

In this 45 min. program, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear explodes the myths
now being promulgated by those promoting nuclear power. He tells of the
insoluble problems of nuclear waste, how nuclear power plants routinely emit
radioactive poisons, how catastrophic accidents can happen, how nuclear
power plants are pre-deployed weapons of mass destruction for terrorists,
and the enormously high costs of nuclear power. He exposes the falsehood
that the French nuclear program has been a success and that nuclear power
does not contribute to global warming.

View it here:  http://www.blip.tv/file/3946822 

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<http://theenergycollective.com/oshadavidson/40559/study-solar-power-cheaper
-nuclear> Study: Solar power is cheaper than nuclear

The Holy Grail of the solar industry - reaching grid parity - may no longer
be a distant dream. Solar may have already reached that point, at least when
compared to nuclear power, according to a new study by two researchers at
Duke University.
<http://www.ncwarn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NCW-SolarReport_final1.pdf
> 

It's no secret that the cost of producing photovoltaic cells (PV) has been
dropping for years. A PV system today costs just 50 percent of what it did
in 1998. Breakthroughs in technology and manufacturing combined with an
increase in demand and production have caused the price of solar power to
decline steadily. At the same time, estimated costs for building new nuclear
power plants have ballooned.

http://theenergycollective.com/oshadavidson/40559/study-solar-power-cheaper-
nuclear

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Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage

New York Times - Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a
clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other
alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a "historic
crossover," the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the
point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear
plants

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/global/27iht-renuke.html

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It's a cloudy day for solar investors

Landowners feel blindsided after OPA wants to cut 80.2 cents a kilowatt hour
first proposed

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/842030--no-ray-of-sunshine-for-solar
-power-investors

Green firms see red over Ontario rule changes for power producers 

Province accused of creating instability by cutting rate for input to
electricity grid

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/green-firms-see-red-over-ontari
o-rule-changes-for-power-producers/article1659943/ 

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A dark ideology is driving those who deny climate change

People who claim that climate science is a conspiracy or the work of
charlatans are talking rubbish 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/01/climate-change-robin-mck
ie

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Climate Change Summit 2010

Aug. 13 - 15, at Hart House, U of T

Three days of climate science and solutions -- no sugar coating.

With Bill McKibbon, Andrew Weaver, Elizabeth May and more

Presented by U of T Greens and Toronto-Danforth Federal Green Party. It is a
non-partisan event open to everyone.

For more info and to register: http://ccc-2010.ca/

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Countdown to Zero 

In Toronto it's playing at the Cumberland Theatre (near Bloor and Bay) 

http://www.toronto.com/documentary/movie/648313 

Documentary probes a new generation of nuclear dangers

Dr. Strangelove isn't dead, he's just moved to a city near you, says
"Countdown to Zero," a film that means to put a new generation of
anti-nuclear campaigners back on the peace path their grandparents pioneered
as Cold War protesters.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/839693--documentary-probes-a-new-g
eneration-of-nuclear-dangers 

Disarmament for Some - Co-opting the Anti-Nuclear Movement 

Countdown to Zero is one component of a larger and coherent foundation
campaign to stoke up public fears about nuclear weapons for the purpose of
extending a near-monopoly on nuclear weapons, and legitimating a more
aggressive foreign policy aimed at regime change in Iran and elsewhere. The
consensus behind those who funded and produced the film has little to do
with disarmament, and a lot to do with stabilizing the American empire.

http://www.counterpunch.org/graham07222010.html

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The Ninth of August

On the 9th of August, 1945, an all-Christian B-29 bomber crew took off from
Tinian Island in the South Pacific, with the blessings of its Catholic and
Protestant chaplains. In the plane's hold was the second of the only two
nuclear bombs to ever be used against human targets in wartime. The primary
target, Kokura, Japan, was clouded over, so the plane, named Bock's Car,
headed for the secondary target, Nagasaki.

Every summer, to call the Christian community to repent and to return to the
truth that violence is not the way of Christ, Father McCarthy leads a fast
from solid foods for 40 days, breaking it on August 9. It is suggested that
fellow peacemakers remember all the victims of past August Ninths in their
prayers on the upcoming 60th anniversary commemoration. It is hoped that
conscientious Christians consider a day-long fast in remembrance of the
hundreds of millions of war dead, the hundreds of millions of physically and
psychologically traumatized survivors of war violence, and the billions of
spiritually dead victims, both soldier-perpetrators and their civilian
victims, innocents who continue to suffer from the starvation, homelessness,
poverty, sickness and hopelessness that follows every war.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/kohls6.html

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Message for Hiroshima Day 2010

We must choose: nuclear weapons or a human future.  The choice should not be
difficult.  Humanity should shout out with a single voice that we choose a
world free of the overarching nuclear threat, a world free of nuclear
weapons.

http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/db_article.php?article_id=123

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Annual Hiroshima Day Peace Commemoration & Reflecting Light Lantern Ceremony

65 Years -Time to Retire the Bomb!

August 6, 2010 marks 65 years since the dropping of the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. Join the Hiroshima Day Coalition in Toronto to commemorate it.

Friday, August 6th 

                        5:30 PM - Origami Paper Crane & Lantern Making

                                 6:30 PM - Peace Commemorations Begin

                                 8:45 PM - Reflective Light Lantern Ceremony

Toronto Peace Garden, Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen Street West (corner
Queen and Bay)

Performances include: 3-time Juno Nominated Artist, Tom Barlow, The Raging
Grannies, young violinist Evelyn Liu, 40 member SGI Youth Choir, Flautist
Scott Kusano, Yakuodo Japanese Drummers

Keynotes include: Joe Ohori, Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor, Hon. Bob
Rae, Liberal Party Foreign Affairs Critic, Murray Thomson, Pearson Peace
Medal recipient, Dr. Adele Buckley, Pugwash Canada on Arctic Nuclear Weapons
Free-Zone, High School Student Sophie Feltes on abolishing nuclear weapons,
University Global Zero students on importance of civil participation, With
MC Phyllis Creighton, Veterans Against Nuclear Arms and Science for Peace

PLUS:  Hiroshima, Nagasaki Exhibit & Survivors Artwork

August 4 to 6th, Toronto City Hall, Rotunda. Daily.

All events are free and open to the public:
http://www.hiroshimadaycoalition.ca/ 

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Pete Seeger Speaks and Sings for Solartopia!

At age 91, Pete is American folk activism's truest bard. It's no accident
that Pete's new CD is Tomorrow's Children and that his new music video is
for Solartopia!  a holistic, socially just, post-corporate vision of a
green-powered Earth. 

Solartopia, he says, "is the wonderful, positive way of approaching the
problem" of a polluted planet. "Don't just say `don't, don't, don't.' Say
`DO! DO! DO!'"  

"Wind power, solar power," Pete says. "This is the most exciting time in the
world to be living.... There has never been such an exciting time."

Watch Pete's 4 minute video Solartopia here: http://www.solartopia.org/ 

Read the article here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/02-1

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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 

Our Facebook Group

 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/petition.php> Sign Our Petition

 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/nonukesnews.php> No Nukes News

 <http://www.healthpower.ca/> Health Power

  <http://cleanairalliance.org/get_involved_donate> donate now

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