Month: August 2020

Today CRED-NB wrote to the leaders of all the registered political parties in the province, asking them to publicly declare their support for a public consultation on radioactive waste in New Brunswick.

 

Today Susan O’Donnell, RAVEN project and CRED-NB member published a commentary on the need for a public consultation on radioactive waste in New Brunswick, in the Telegraph Journal. You can read it here. The article was also published in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner and the Moncton Times & Transcript.

Cortney MacDonnell, a UNB student working with CRED-NB member RAVEN, published a story today about the communities affected by coal mining in Columbia. The coal is shipped to Canada, where it is burned in the NB Power Belledune plant in northern New Brunswick. You can read Cortney’s story here.

CRED-NB member Rick Cheeseman published an article today with the NB Media Coop, “Facts vs fictions about the new nuclear reactors promoted by the PCs and Liberals for New Brunswick.” The article links to a visual presentation about the new nukes. You can read his article and access the presentation from this link.  The presentation is also on our Dirty Energy information page.

Our Coalition is supporting calls for a public consultation on radioactive waste in New Brunswick.

Why?

Both PC leader Blaine Higgs and Liberal leader Kevin Vickers are promoting new nuclear reactors for New Brunswick during the election campaign.

The province and NB Power already gave $10 million to two nuclear companies from the US and UK to set up in Saint John. Now the PCs and Liberals are planning to give them more.

Here’s some facts that Blaine Higgs and Kevin Vickers are not sharing:

• The new nuclear projects will create fuel with plutonium that can be used to make nuclear weapons, bringing New Brunswick into a dangerous “plutonium economy“
• The waste from the new reactors will be MORE radioactive per kilo than the existing waste at Lepreau. We will have to store it somewhere in New Brunswick, as no nuclear waste storage place exists in Canada.
• Building the new reactor sites will create hundreds of tons of radioactive concrete, radioactive steel and other radioactive materials that cannot be recycled. NB taxpayers will be responsible for the disposal costs.

Also, both Blaine Higgs and Kevin Vickers are ignoring that:

• Nuclear energy is more expensive than renewable energy.
• Investment in nuclear will delay climate action.
• Nuclear projects create fewer jobs than retrofit and renewable energy jobs.

See more information about nuclear energy development on this website.

We need a public consultation on radioactive waste in New Brunswick that will get all the facts on the table. New Brunswickers need all the information so we can make informed decisions about our future.

Please show your support for our Coalition and be a champion of responsible energy development in New Brunswick. If you sign up you can put your name on our website and receive the Coalition newsletter. Visit our members page for the list of people and groups in our Coalition and sign-up sheet to become a champion.

Why are both the PCs and Liberals promoting nuclear power – the most expensive power! – during the election? The cost of nuclear energy is going up while renewable solar and wind energy costs are going down.

NB Power is more than $1 billion in debt for its massive cost over-runs on the refurbishment of its Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station and the expensive ongoing repairs to the nuclear plant since then.

Around the world, nuclear power has a long history of massive expenses and repairs coming in millions over-budget. And governments – we, the taxpayers – always end up with the bill.

The Lepreau debt is driving up electricity costs in New Brunswick. Now both the PC party and the Liberal party are promoting MORE nuclear power for New Brunswick!

The government and NB Power have already given $10 million to two start-up companies from the UK and the US to develop plans for new reactors at Lepreau.

Building the two proposed new nuclear reactors in New Brunswick will cost more than $1 billion each. Billions more will be required from future taxpayers in New Brunswick to clean up and store the radioactive concrete, steel, and other materials left when the  new reactors are decommissioned.

Why should we leave a financial mess along with the dangerous radioactive materials risking the health of our children and grandchildren and many, many more generations of New Brunswickers in future?

Good question, so why are both the PCs and the Liberals promising to give New Brunswick more nuclear energy?

The nuclear industry is desperate to survive and lobbying hard for public handouts. Because the new reactors have no customers, there is no business case so the banks will not finance the development unless the government guarantees the loans.

Better still for the nuclear industry, the plan seems to just hand over billions in public cash, in non-repayable grants!

The nuclear industry lobby group  representative in New Brunswick has another job: he is the Vice-President Nuclear of NB Power and the highest-paid public servant in the province. A circular, bottomless money pit!

CRED-NB formed after a visit to New Brunswick and presentations by Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. His March 13 presentation in Fredericton was converted to a webinar when COVID-19 restrictions were announced. A video of Dr. Edwards’ presentation was published by the NB Media Co-op and is available on this website. Today we added a new link to a a transcript of his presentation. You can access the video and transcript from the video tab of this website: scroll down to the first video.

CRED-NB sent a letter today to the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, inviting him to hold public consultations in New Brunswick on his new national radioactive waste policy. You can read the letter here.

The original letter signed by CRED-NB and 100 other groups across Canada about the lack of a national radioactive waste policy is here.

CRED-NB published the video of our webinar on solar energy in New Brunswick. The event brought together experts and policy makers on the topic in the province and across Canada. An excellent start to a much-needed ongoing conversation on renewable energy development!

Watch the video from the Video tab on this website.