Tag: National Conversation

Commentary by Emma Fackenthall in the NB Media Co-op

As many countries scramble toward a net-zero future, some are betting on nuclear energy to reach their goal. However, a quiet but profound gender divide is growing around nuclear energy. 

While nuclear power is often hailed as a critical tool in the climate fight, a growing body of research suggests that fewer women than men support nuclear power. This divide can be explained by safety concerns, ecofeminist ethics of care, and the nuclear industry’s macho culture. 

The striking gender divide is another reason to question the viability of nuclear energy to attain climate justice and energy democracy.

For the whole article, click here.

What is the best way for utilities to delay the transition from fossil fuels? Propose to build nuclear reactors.

Electricity utilities wanting to “decarbonize” have several options for replacing the fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas) plants on their grids: aim to increase energy efficiency and productivity; add new renewable energy and storage resources; consider adding carbon capture and storage (CCS); or propose to build new nuclear reactors.

By objective measures, building new nuclear power plants will cost more, take longer to deploy, and introduce catastrophic accident risks—relative to improving energy productivity, expanding renewables with energy storage, and developing distributed energy resources. CCS suffers from limits of appropriate geology, reduced plant efficiency, and high costs.

However, if the goal is to keep fossil fuel-fired plants operating as long as possible, promising to build more nuclear energy has definite appeal.

Read the complete article here.

Dr. Susan O’Donnell is a core member of CRED-NB, on the board of the NB Media Co-op and adjunct research professor and lead investigator of the CEDAR project at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Dr. Mark Winfield is a professor at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto, and co-chair of the faculty’s Sustainable Energy Initiative.

(La version française suit)

From the SMRs Education Task Force: Bulletin number 15 • March 2025

Toxic radioactive waste is expensive to clean up. Canada’s contract to clean up its legacy waste is worth billions for a three-company consortium: Canada’s AtkinsRéalis and Texas-based Fluor and Jacobs. The two American companies run nuclear weapons facilities in the U.S. and U.K. in addition to their Canadian nuclear interests.

Parliament’s payment to the consortium last year was $1.3 billion. The annual payments have risen each year of the 10-year contract that will end in September 2025. The consortium operates “Canadian Nuclear Laboratories” (CNL) in a “Government-owned, Contractor-operated” (GoCo) arrangement with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).

The U.K. abandoned GoCo contracts because of exorbitant costs and poor value for money. Under Canada’s GoCo contract, AECL owns lands, buildings, and radioactive waste, and the three-company consortium operates AECL’s sites.

When the Harper government issued the 10-year GoCo contract during the 2015 federal election period, they said AECL lacked the ability to clean up Canada’s multi-billion radioactive waste liability dating to World War II and needed “private sector rigour.” From their billion-dollar annual payout, the three partner corporations take $237 million for “contractual expenses.” The salaries of 44 senior CNL managers, mostly Americans, average over $500,000 each.

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Les entreprises américaines profitent des déchets radioactifs du Canada

De le groupe de travail sur l’éducation relative aux PRM : Bulletin numéro 15 • Mars 2025

Les déchets radioactifs toxiques sont coûteux à nettoyer. Le contrat du Canada pournettoyer ses déchets qui s’accumulent vaut des milliards pour un consortium de troisentreprises : AtkinsRéalis du Canada et Fluor and Jacobs, basées au Texas. Les deuxsociétés américaines exploitent des installations d’armement nucléaire aux États-Uniset au Royaume-Uni, en plus de leurs intérêts nucléaires canadiens.Le paiement du Parlement au consortium l’an dernier s’est élevé à 1,3 milliard dedollars. Les paiements annuels ont augmenté chaque année du contrat de 10 ans quise terminera en septembre 2025.

Le consortium exploite les « Laboratoires nucléaires canadiens » (LNC) dans le cadred’une entente avec Énergie atomique du Canada limitée (EACL) dite « GoCo(Government-owned, Contractor-operated » qui signifie que le gouvernement possèdel’organisme, mais que le consortium le gère.

Le Royaume-Uni a abandonné les contrats de GoCo en raison des coûts exorbitants etdu faible rapport qualité-prix. En vertu du contrat de GoCo du Canada, EACL estpropriétaire des terres, des bâtiments et des déchets radioactifs, et le consortium detrois sociétés exploite les sites d’EACL.

Lorsque le gouvernement Harper a publié le contrat de 10 ans pour la GoCo pendant lapériode des élections fédérales de 2015, il a déclaré qu’EACL n’avait pas la capacité denettoyer les déchets radioactifs du Canada qui représentent des milliards de dollars etqui datent de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et qu’elle devait faire preuve de « rigueur dusecteur privé ».

Sur leur versement annuel de 1 milliard de dollars, les trois sociétés partenairesprennent 237 millions de dollars pour des « dépenses contractuelles ». Les salaires de44 cadres supérieurs des LNC, pour la plupart américains, excèdent en moyenne500 000 $ chacun.

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