Tag: National Conversation

CRED-NB is one of 120 groups (and counting) across Canada that have signed on to a public statement calling out SMRs as dirty, dangerous distractions to real climate action. The Ontario Clean Air Alliance made a handout with the statement and the list of signatory groups as of June 2022. Download and share at your next event! The link is HERE.

The CBC Saskatchewan radio program Blue Sky invited CRED-NB representative Susan O’Donnell to a call-in show on Sept. 22 on the issue of SMRs in the province. Susan shared her knowledge about SMR development, including New Brunswick’s current experience with nuclear power at the Point Lepreau reactor.

Listen to the portion of the show including Susan, HERE, or the entire Blue Sky segment with all guests on the CBC site, HERE, including David Geary from CRED-NB collaborators Clean Green Saskatchewan.

The Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) has sent a formal request to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to order an impact assessment for a project which could have profound and lasting impacts on the Bay of Fundy and the coastal communities and marine life it supports.

For more information about why an impact assessment is required, including letters of support from Indigenous groups and civil society groups in New Brunswick and across Canada, read the formal CRED-NB request to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, HERE. (French version HERE.)

To send a letter to Minister Guilbeault supporting the CRED-NB request, use our action tool, HERE. We’re working in collaboration with the Ontario Clean Air Alliance to gather support across Canada.

The nuclear industry plans to build experimental nuclear reactors, so-called “small modular nuclear reactors” (SMRs) in New Brunswick, with the aim that one day they can be used in different towns and remote communities across Canada.

Pressure from the nuclear industry lobby changed our federal environmental assessment law in 2019, exempting many nuclear projects like SMRs from undergoing a full environmental impact assessment (IA). 

CRED-NB is challenging the exemption for the “SMR Demonstration Project” planned for Point Lepreau on the Bay of Fundy, asking the federal government to step in and order the project undergo a full IA under the Impact Assessment Act.

“As a first of its kind experimental nuclear project, on the traditional territory of the Peskotomuhkati Nation, which opposes the project, with ramifications for the rights of the Wolastoqey and Mi’gmaq Nations, and located in a beautiful, coastal rural region with locally important fishing, tourism and wild blueberry industries, the SMR Demonstration Project ought to attract the most rigorous form of public engagement and planning,” said Gail Wylie, CRED-NB chair.

“The exemption not only erodes public involvement and oversight of the project but also means that there will be no full reckoning of the alternatives to the energy project and its impacts to social, economic, Indigenous and environmental values,” added Ann McAllister, spokesperson for CRED-NB.

Opponents argue that the SMRs do not need an IA, since they have to get a licence from the nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. This profoundly misses the mark! A nuclear licence is a regulatory proceeding – it does not account for the “big picture” or whether the project has a social licence to operate. 

“There is a pressing need to designate this project for an IA. Impact assessment promotes a ‘look before you leap’ approach to decision-making so that independent reviews of risk and harm, alternatives to the project, the purpose of the project and impacts on social, economic, Indigenous and environmental values can be duly evaluated,” said Kerrie Blaise, legal counsel for the Canadian Environmental Law Association. CELA was among the groups endorsing the designation request to the Minister sent today.

CRED-NB is asking people across Canada to support the campaign. This is not just a New Brunswick issue. If successful, these SMRs could be deployed in hundreds of communities across the country. Their wastes will be added to our existing stockpiles for which no solution currently exists.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research this week began its study of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). The committee’s study page is HERE.

The first day of witness testimony was on June 2. The webcast recording is on the website along with the list of witnesses on that date, which included the VP Nuclear of NB Power.

On June 9, CRED-NB’s Susan O’Donnell will be a witness for the study. The webcast will be live on the link above at 7:30 Atlantic time. Susan is in the first one-hour time slot. CRED-NB friend Gordon Edwards will be presenting in the second hour. The meeting runs for three hours.

SAINT JOHN, NB – Canada’s nuclear regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, has commenced its three day public hearing of public utility NB Power’s request for a 25-year renewal to its operating licence for its nuclear reactor on the Bay of Fundy. The Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, owned and operated by NB Power, is located 40km southwest of Saint John, New Brunswick; it is Canada’s only nuclear power plant on the ocean. 

This hearing considers a first ever request for a 25 year nuclear operating licence. The Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) is among the public intervenors appearing before the Commission. On May 11, CELA, jointly with the New Brunswick based community based Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB), will be asking for the Commission to deny the 25-year licence request, citing concerns about the reduction in public scrutiny and engagement in nuclear oversight. 

Central to today’s hearing, reflected in the oral interventions made by the public and questions raised by Commissioners, was the length of licence being requested. We heard from NB Power that a 25 year licence “would not impede informal engagement with the public” with CNSC Staff echoing the Commission has the discretion to hold public proceedings at any time, should it so choose with the licensing period. 

We also heard from CNSC Staff that while a 25-year licence would remove the requirement for a public hearing for this duration, it would open up new opportunities, like “strategic and topical discussion on specific issues.” And, without a hearing, these standalone discussions on one-on-one items would allow for more “in-depth considerations.”

In response, intervenors, including Chief Akagi of the Passamaquoddy, noted a longer licensing period would mean “losing the voice of a generation” and would be determinative of the “length of time NB Power will be putting, fresh, hazardous materials on Passamaquoddy lands.”

The Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn echoed that a longer licence could “negatively affect both public perception of the Commission’s oversight, and opportunities for meaningful engagement with First Nations and other communities.” Both have asked the Commission to support shorter licence terms or 2 – 5 years. As Kim Reeder of Passamquoddy shared, this would simply maintain the status quo where in the station’s 40 year history, the licence length has averaged 2.44 years. 

Remarking on today’s hearing event, CRED-NB member Gail Wylie shared “What concerns me about what we have heard today, is the continued reference to nuclear as “clean” and “cheap”. I was pleased that other citizen presentations today have pointed out the very low cost of renewables and have debunked the claims of nuclear being reliable, especially as we’ve experienced Point Lepreau being offline for 40 days last winter and the 3.5 years during its refurbishment.”

As intervenor Ann McAllister shared, “For those of us concerned about being excluded from input during a 25 year licensing period, today was not reassuring to hear – both NB Power and the CNSC acknowledged the need for better public engagement, and yet they have no concrete plan to make that happen.”

Tomorrow, the hearing will continue and you can tune in live online.