Funding by Ottawa of future nuclear reactors

[Oscar]

Funding by Ottawa of future nuclear reactors

[ https://lautjournal.info/20201118/finan ... nucleaires ]

November 18, 2020| By Coalition **TRANSLATION** . . . . . ** Numerous internal LINKS**

Groups across Canada this morning denounced the federal government's decision to fund the development of still experimental small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Instead, Ottawa should invest in renewables and energy efficiency which are much more useful in addressing the climate crisis, they say.

Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O'Regan, today launches the “Government Action Plan on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors” at a virtual conference of the Canadian Nuclear Society. This government plan provides for subsidizing private companies (mostly based in the US or UK ) to help them build prototypes of these new nuclear reactors.

Dozens of organizations, from coast to coast, argue that these future nuclear reactors are just a "polluting and dangerous distraction" that is ineffective against the climate crisis. These organizations include Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada, the Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive, Équiterre, the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick and the Regroupement pour la surveillance du nuclear.

The Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Green Party have also denounced the government's action plan on small modular nuclear reactors. In December 2018, a Special Assembly of Chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations unanimously passed a resolution calling for “the Government of Canada to stop funding and supporting the Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Program” ( Resolution 62 ).

In a press release released on November 13 by MP Monique Pauzé, the Bloc Québécois denounced “Ottawa's intention to invest in nuclear energy for the benefit - again - of an Ontario industrial sector rather than financing the transition to clean electricity. The Bloc calls for the planned deployment of small modular nuclear reactors to be abandoned. The federal government is leading Canada to a wall by betting on nuclear as a form of clean energy, which it is absolutely not."

The spokesman NDP in terms of natural resources, Richard Cannings, said in a statement: "Many Canadians are concerned about the adverse impact of nuclear energy. With regard to energy production, there are other avenues to be favored. We have safer, cheaper options that will be ready to use faster. I think we should support the development of energy storage solutions to promote the generalization of renewable energies such as solar and wind power. "

On November 10, the three members of the Green Party of Canada caucus issued a statement and signed a letter addressed to Minister O'Regan and Minister Navdeep Bains saying: "Small modular nuclear reactors have no place in a plan to mitigate climate change when cleaner and cheaper solutions already exist. The federal government must stop funding the nuclear industry and redirect its investments to smarter solutions. Nuclear power fails in various ways, especially economically. "

Professor Susan O'Donnell of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick says, “Building new nuclear reactors should not be part of an action plan against global warming. Leading researchers have shown that investing in renewable energy is the best way to achieve zero emissions and that adding nuclear energy to the solution package hurts rather than improving. "

According to Shawn-Patrick Stensil, director of programs at Greenpeace Canada, “the Liberal government is throwing its money out the window. We have been told for forty years that the hypothetical new nuclear technologies will solve everything and this has never happened, despite massive public subsidies."

The reactors we are being offered are still on the drawing board and it will take at least a decade to develop them. If we build them, their electricity will cost ten times more than wind or solar power. The most advanced small modular nuclear reactor project to date in the United States has seen its cost double from $ 3 billion to over $ 6 billion.

The federal government announced a first grant for small modular nuclear reactors of $ 20 million to Terrestrial Energy on October 15.

MPs and environmental groups are shocked that the government is funding new nuclear energy development without parliamentary scrutiny, while trying to avoid public scrutiny and debate. They called the consultation that preceded the SMR Action Plan a “sham”. Individuals and groups could only comment on the plan if they first subscribed to a policy statement supporting small modular nuclear reactor technologies.

Nuclear power and uranium mines will always be polluting and dangerous. Radioactive waste will have to be isolated from the biosphere for thousands of years, and there is no known way to do this in practice.