Author: CREDNB

New video: Nuclear Energy and the Bomb

Most people around the world learned about power of the atom from newspapers on August 7, 1945 after the U.S. military dropped a nuclear bomb that destroyed the city of Hiroshima in Japan and killed or injured 140,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki.

After the war, governments realized that nuclear energy to generate electricity would be unacceptable to the population unless people could be convinced that it was completely separate from nuclear weapons. The U.S. began an “atoms for peace” propaganda campaign to convince Americans to accept nuclear energy despite their knowledge of its terrible destructive power. The campaign to deny the link between the two continues today in every country that has nuclear energy, including Canada.

CRED-NB was co-host of a lecture by University of British Columbia professor M.V. Ramana on Oct. 12 at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. The link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons “is a truth that has been systematically masked” says Ramana. See the video HERE.

Why are SMRs a dog’s breakfast of designs?

CRED-NB is part of a national network of groups publishing the new SMRs Information Task Force bulletins. The first one addresses the question: Why are SMRs a dog’s breakfast of designs?

As of 2023 roughly 50 small modular reactor (SMR) designs are under development, with electrical generating capacity varying between 5 and 300 megawatts.

Compared to the current generation of larger nuclear reactors, SMRs would require smaller capital investments and provide options for deployment at remote locations with smaller power demands. But as reactor size goes down, unit cost goes up, as does the amount of radioactive waste per unit of electricity generated.

Different technology options attempt to address the concerns that plague the nuclear industry: safety, cost, radioactive waste, and weapons proliferation. However, designing for “passive safety”, opting for “waste recycling”, or providing “proliferation resistance” all involve trade-offs. With no clear “best” design, and no sizeable market, there is no justification for building a factory to mass-produce “modular” components to bring down costs.

Read the rest of it, in both official languages, HERE.

New Brunswick confirms its nuclear plans: Another $7M for SMRs

Premier Higgs was in Ottawa on Oct. 17 looking for federal funding for New Brunswick’s plans to green the electricity grid and make the province “net-zero” by 2050. He confirmed that developing new reactor designs is a provincial priority, along with converting the NB Power coal-fired plant at Belledune to burning biomass. In response, the federal government announced $7M for the ARC-100 project and $2M for a feasibility study for Belledune. This is in contrast to the Nova Scotia plan that focuses on offshore wind generation. CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell wrote a short article about it for the NB Media Co-op, HERE.

CRED-NB brief to federal committee on natural resources

On October 3, CRED submitted a brief to the House of Commons standing committee on Natural Resources. The committee is studying Canada’s clean energy plans in the context of the North American energy transition. Our brief consisted of a document, Eleven reasons nuclear energy should not be part of Canada’s plans for a clean electricity grid in future. Read the document:
In English HERE
In French HERE

New Brunswick Indigenous communities and all New Brunswickers need facts, not sales hype, about SMNRs

Governments and other nuclear proponents are failing both Indigenous and settler communities by promoting sales and publicity material about small modular nuclear reactors (SMNRs) instead of sharing facts by independent researchers not tied to the industry. A commentary by Peskotomuhkati Chief Hugh Akagi and CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell was published by The Hill Times, the Telegraph Journal and the NB Media Co-op. Read it HERE.

Share your comments about the ARC-100 nuclear project

Today the NB government opened the first opportunity for public comment on NB Power’s ARC Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Demonstration Project proposed for Point Lepreau. During the next 30 days, First Nations and the general public have the opportunity to ensure that their concerns help to determine the topics that NB Power studies and reports on during the Environmental Impact Assessment process.

HERE is the page on our website about the ARC-100 experiment and many of the concerns we have about the project. If you share these concerns, please submit them to the government so that the impact assessment will include these topics.

How to send your comments? It’s simple: send them in an email to EIAEIE@gnb.ca. There is no word limit. The comments deadline is Oct. 28.

CRED-NB is engaging in this process, and we encourage everyone to share your concerns and thoughts. You don’t have to be a nuclear expert to voice your concerns about the safety, environmental, economic, cultural, security, and intergenerational concerns you may have about the potential impacts of this project. It’s us and those who will follow us that will live with – and pay for – those impacts.

Please share this notice widely with your networks.

Fredericton, Thursday, October 12 @ STU– Professor M.V. Ramana: “Nuclear Energy and the Bomb”

When thinking about energy transitions, the issue of nuclear weapons rarely comes to mind. Yet the connections between generating nuclear energy and the ability to make nuclear weapons have been evident since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed. One connection is separating plutonium from used nuclear fuel, the technology proposed for Point Lepreau in New Brunswick. Other connections include the overlap in technical expertise and institutions.

M.V. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and Professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

7pm • Kinsella Auditorium • 9 Duffie Drive • Fredericton • More info HERE.

Everyone is invited to this free public talk at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Hosts are the CEDAR project and the Environment and Society Program at St. Thomas University and co-hosts the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada (IPPNWC), the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) and the NB Media Co-op.

NB Power has its head stuck in uranium

NB Power seems to want to be a nuclear utility no matter how much it costs or whether or not the nuclear technology works because… well, just because. The utility’s 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) released in July states that small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are critical to developing a clean and cost-effective power grid in New Brunswick, although NB Power does not know when, or if, SMRs will become available or the cost.

Read the full article published on Sept. 1 by the NB Media Co-op, HERE. A revised version was published by the Telegraph Journal on Sept. 28.