Tag: National Conversation

Why is NB Power hiding the risks of transporting radioactive waste?

NB Power and nuclear industry partners want to build a radioactive waste pit in Northwestern Ontario. But they are hiding the risks of transporting the waste more than 2,900 km from Point Lepreau through communities in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

Current plans envision more than 2,100 transport packages of New Brunswick’s used nuclear fuel travelling approximately 2,900 kilometres, through public roads in the province and across Canada, over a period of 10 to 15 years.

Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO, including NB Power) – filed their official project plan but did NOT include the 2,900 km drive from Point Lepreau. Why? To stop the public from raising concerns about it.

Learn more and take action HERE.

NB groups raise concern about nuclear waste proposal

CRED-NB and three other groups in the province, along with 70 other groups across Canada signed a letter sent Dec. 16 to Prime Minister Carney and two federal cabinet ministers asking them to oversee the nuclear industry’s proposal for radioactive waste burial in Northwestern Ontario.

NB Power is a member of the industry’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) proposing the project, opposed by the Chiefs in Assembly of Treaty 3, Nishnawbi Aski Nation, Anishnabek Nation and the Chiefs of Ontario.

The letter raises particular concern with the NWMO plan to exclude the transport of radioactive waste (including across roads in New Brunswick) from the Impact Assessment of the project. Read the letter HERE.

On the road with radioactive waste: Canada’s roads are not safe

Canada is decommissioning a nuclear power plant for the first time, marking a new chapter in the country’s nuclear history. The decommissioning of Gentilly-1 in Bécancour, Quebec — on the St. Lawrence River in Wabanaki territory — is a milestone in the country’s reckoning with its radioactive legacy, setting a precedent that will influence how future projects are approached across Canada.

Decisions and actions for this project will shape the expectations, policies, and protections in place when it comes time to decommission Point Lepreau. Read the full story in the NB Media Co-op by CRED-NB champion Mayara Gonçalves e Lima, HERE.

Letter: We need transparent and responsible management of radioactive waste

CRED-NB and nearly 100 other groups and prominent individuals signed a letter to express concern that Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has decided to consolidate radioactive waste at the Chalk River Laboratories site without consultation with First Nations or the public, and without parliamentary debate. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is only a private contractor, not a government agency. Read the letter HERE.

A Preventable Health Crisis – the toll of uranium mining

Uranium, when disturbed, dissolves readily in water thus contaminating wells and aquifers. When ingested, uranium is chemically toxic, affecting the kidneys, bones and other organs.

Uranium mine wastes contain 85% of the ore’s radioactivity and continue to generate new radioactive byproducts for thousands of years.

Uranium mining is hidden away in marginalized or Indigenous areas. The health effects on affected citizens remain understudied and are best described by them. Read the full December bulletin from the SMRs Information Task Force, HERE.

Ontario’s pricey nuclear power should give pause to NB Power

The high cost of subsidizing Ontario’s nuclear power generation and the exorbitant cost of plans for new nuclear development are good reasons for NB Power to abandon plans for more nuclear development in New Brunswick.

Here are two recent articles in the NB Media Co-op with the Ontario story:

Ford’s nuclear push could backfire with higher bills, US gas reliance: report

Ontario electricity supply costs jump 29 per cent as nuclear spending rises

A nuclear project with three strikes against it

Prime Minister Carney is giving two billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to a “nation-building” project that already has three strikes against it.

Touted as the western world’s first small modular nuclear reactor, to be built in Ontario, the BWRX is an American design, requiring enriched uranium fuel that must be purchased from a non-Canadian supplier, and is too expensive to be sold abroad. Three strikes.

CRED-NB is a member of the SMRs Information Task Force that publishes monthly bulletins sent to all MPs and MLAs in New Brunswick. Read the November bulletin, A costly way to depend on others, HERE.

Letter: no public funds for the Pathways Alliance Carbon Capture pipeline and storage project

CRED-NB is one of 49 organizations that signed an open letter opposing the use of public funds for the construction and operation of the Pathways Alliance Carbon Capture pipeline and underground storage facility (CCS) — which is currently on the federal government’s list of proposed nation-building projects.

Pathways Alliance — a group of oil companies responsible for 95% of tar sands production — are trying to get $16.5 billion of our public dollars for a risky and ineffective CCS project. As people across Canada struggle with the climate and cost-of-living crisis, top polluters are asking us to foot the bill for their greenwashing scheme.

Read the letter with the signatories HERE.

Boosting nuclear power is not nation-building

CRED-NB is a member of the national SMRs Information Task force which produces bilingual monthly bulletins sent to elected officials. The topic of the October bulletin is “Boosting nuclear power is not nation-building.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney has released his priority “nation-building projects,” including the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in Ontario. He claims this project will “build Canada strong,” but nuclear power is the slowest, most expensive way of providing electricity, far greater than the costs of renewables and energy storage.

Read the full bulletin, in both official languages, HERE.

Canada’s absence from UN high-level climate summit sows confusion and uncertainty

CRED-NB is an active member of Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac). During the United Nations meetings in New York, CAN-Rac issued a statement on Sept. 24, after Prime Minister Carney withdrew last-minute from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit.

Calling Canada’s action’s “embarrassing,” Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada, said: “This absence only sows more confusion and doubt, amid recent uncertainty over whether the federal government is still committed to Canada’s climate targets and to key emissions-reductions policies. Prime Minister Carney and his team need to get their act together and close the gap between words and actions before COP – both at a national and international level. Is Canada in, or out? Climate Action Network Canada and its members are watching.”