No Nukes News: Mini-Nukes, Big Bucks

Wed Jan 20 16:39:18 EST 2021

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“Nuclear power is like fighting world hunger with caviar, it’s like using the most expensive option when there are far more plentiful and nutritious options available when you account for the costs.” — Benjamin Sovacool, professor of energy policy, University of Sussex and a lead author for the IPCC on climate change mitigation speaking on CBC radio

The World

☢ Mini-Nukes, Big Bucks: The Interests Behind the SMR Push Why Canada is now poised to pour billions of tax dollars into developing Small Modular Reactors as a “clean energy” climate solution.

☢ Canada must not gamble on nuclear power  The Conservative Party, the NDP, the Green Party, and the Bloc have all expressed their opposition to the Liberal Party’s declared preference for promoting and investing in a grab-bag of untested nuclear reactors called Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMNRs)

☢ Political opposition growing to new nuclear reactors Government-funded expansion of the nuclear industry, and a simultaneous watering-down of regulations, could be the Liberal government’s toxic legacy.

☢ Feds’ Small Modular Reactor Action Plan is a dangerous distraction from climate change mitigation Allocating federal climate-change funds to them is a travesty. 

☢ O'Regan all in on unnatural resources The cost of wind and solar power leaves nuclear economically in the dust. Nuclear cannot compete without government to buoy it up. See our cost factsheet here.

☢ If we’re going to spend a billion dollars a year managing our nuclear waste, let’s do it right A contract quietly signed during the 2015 federal election campaign between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and a multinational consortium is costing Canadians billions of dollars and increasing risks to health from deadly radioactive pollutants.

☢ Nukes - again! By Green MP Elizabeth May. Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan has been sucked into the latest nuclear propaganda. But not only do we not need new nuclear, not only does it have the same risks as previous nuclear reactors and creates long lived nuclear wastes, it is more tied to the U.S. military-industrial complex than ever before. 

☢ Mini-Nukes: "Dirty and Dangerous" Canada is investing in “next generation” nuclear reactors, despite cheaper renewable options, underwhelming economic benefits, and no strategy to deal with radioactive waste.

☢ We need parliamentarians to prevent the Ottawa River from being permanently contaminated by gigantic radioactive landfill that would do little to reduce Canada’s $8 billion nuclear waste liability.

☢ More nuclear reactors for New Brunswick? – Risks and Benefits of SMRs Watch the recording of the webinar held Jan. 14 featuring Susan O'Donnell from the University of New Brunswick.

☢ More Poison From the Plant On Dec. 21, 2020, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) gifted BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada with an extended licence to pollute in downtown Peterborough-Nogojiwanong, allowing BWXT to significantly intensify their radioactive pollution across the street from an elementary school.

☢ Towards a Nuclear Weapons Free World The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been endorsed by 122 nations and will become international law on Jan. 22. Regrettably, Canada has refused to sign or ratify this landmark Treaty. Read the parliamentary appeal here signed by hundreds of Canadian groups and individuals. 

Ontario

☢ Cleaning up Ontario's Hydro Mess As electricity costs soar, the Ford government needs to scrap the Fair Hydro Plan and review all options before doing further nuclear refurbishments.

☢ Ontario's Electricity future: nuclear or renewable? With Angela Bischoff. Watch my presentation to the Toronto East End Climate Collective last week.

☢ City of Kingston calls for phase-out of Ontario’s gas-fired power plants The City of Kingston joins the following 12 municipalities that have also passed resolutions calling for a gas plant phase-out: Kitchener, Hamilton, Burlington, Windsor, St. Catharines, Guelph, Waterloo, Halton Hills, Selwyn, Woolwich, King and Cobourg. Tell your MPP it's time for gas to go.

Renewables and Conservation

☼ Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries.

☼ Wind Turbines Generated More Than Half of Great Britain’s Energy on Boxing Day The world is going renewable. Ontario stands alone in the world for cancelling hundreds of renewable energy projects and conservation programs while doubling down on high cost, risky nuclear and ramping up gas.

☼ MIT Study: Transmission Is Key to a Low-Cost, Decarbonized US Grid Modeling shows a nationwide transmission network could tap existing solar, wind and battery tech to reach zero-carbon power. 

Take Action

☢ Tell Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland: Don't Subsidize New Nuclear Once again, the federal gov't is planning to waste taxpayers' dollars on new nuclear technology which is far more hype than substance with no working prototypes in Canada. Send Freeland and your MP a letter here.

☢ Petition opposing federal support for SMNRs We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Uphold its commitment as a signatory to the Joint Convention to minimize the generation of radioactive waste; and 2. Cease all support and taxpayer funding for small modular nuclear reactors.

☢ Nuclear waste should not be buried underground in Ontario – Petition The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is proposing a deep geological repository to abandon spent nuclear fuel bundles underground in South Bruce, Ontario. Support the community in their request for a referendum.

☢ Reclaim Pickering’s waterfront Call for the immediate dismantling of the Pickering Nuclear Station after closure in 2024. Send a message to Ontario’s Finance Minister and your MPP here. 

☢ Say no to new nuclear in the GTA Tell our political leaders that you want Ontario to invest in wind and solar energy, not a new GTA nuclear reactor.

☢ Canada – Sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons thereby advancing Canada’s longstanding commitment to global nuclear disarmament. Petition.

☢ Stop Japan from dumping radioactive water from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster into the sea – it should instead be solidified and stored onland. Petition to the Japanese gov’t.

☢ Order your FREE leaflets here calling on the Ford Government to phase out gas power plants, immediately dismantle the Pickering nuclear station after shutdown in 2024, and calling on Chrystia Freeland to not fund new nuclear in the GTA. High school students can claim volunteer hours distributing leaflets to mailboxes in their neighbourhoods.

Events

☢ No Nuclear Waste – Protect our Waterways Wed. Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m. EST. A discussion on local planning issues with David Donnelly, and of radioactive stigma with Kevin Kamps.

☢ Ending the global security threats of nuclear power: Lessons from the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Wed. Jan. 27, 3 - 4:30 pm EST

☢ Ontario's Electricity Future - nuclear, gas or renewable? With Angela Bischoff, Ontario Clean Air Alliance and Ottawa's FIrst Unitarian Congregation. Sun. Feb 14, 9 a.m. EST

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