Tag: Nuclear

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.

October 3 – 80 years of the Nuclear Age: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki + M.V. Ramana

On Oct. 3 at 3 PM at the Fredericton Public Library: The opening of the poster exhibit: 80 years of the Nuclear Age: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki will feature a talk by M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the University of British Columbia.

The exhibit, which will run for the month of October, is organized by CRED-NB Champion the CEDAR project in partnership with four departments and programs at St. Thomas University. More info HERE.

Confusion about a second repository for radioactive wastes

CRED-NB is a member of the network that publishes a monthly bulletin about small reactors and related issues. The bulletin is sent to all federal MPs and elected representatives in several provinces, including New Brunswick.

This month the topic is: Confusion About a Second Repository for Radioactive Wastes. In June, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) posted a “discussion paper” outlining their intention to site a second deep geological repository (DGR) for radioactive waste.

The NWMO announcement of an additional DGR has caused confusion. MPs are having trouble keeping the story straight among the various nuclear waste schemes. Read the complete bulletin HERE.

A second CANDU for Point Lepreau?

Over the summer, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt mused to journalists about building a second CANDU reactor at the Point Lepreau nuclear site on the Bay of Fundy.

“A second CANDU is not far-fetched,” she told the Telegraph Journal. On the weekend, Holt enthused about the idea in a CBC story about the Eastern Energy Partnership pitch to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

A new CANDU reactor for New Brunswick? It’s a puzzling thought, worth pondering.

Read the article by CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell and nuclear scientist Frank Greening in The Energy Mix, HERE.

A shorter version was published in French in Acadie Nouvelle, HERE.

Stop Canada’s $24 Billion Nuclear Privatization Deal!

A Parliamentary petition, now open for signatures, was developed by Ole Hendrickson, a CRED-NB ally in Ontario concerned about the link between civilian nuclear power and the nuclear weapons industry. We share his concern. Key info from the petition:

  • Canada is poised to award a multi-billion dollar contract — the largest federal contract ever — to a consortium of U.S. companies;
  • If this happens, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited subsidiary, will be owned by American firms calling themselves “Nuclear Laboratories Partners of Canada.”;
  • The new contract would last up to 20 years, cost taxpayers over 24 billion dollars, and allow private commercial work at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited sites across Canada;
  • Hundreds of millions of dollars in contract management fees would be paid annually to firms that operate U.S. nuclear weapons facilities;
  • Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ current projects include a $1+ billion facility to enable plutonium research, and a tritium extraction facility; plutonium and tritium are key explosive ingredients in nuclear weapons;

Read the rest of the petition and sign it HERE.

If you’ve never signed a parliamentary petition before, your name will not be displayed but after signing, you’ll get an email that you click to confirm your email address. You can also choose to get updates on the petition.

Tariff threats spur need for “east-west” electricity integration

Canada must focus on increasing our energy security.

Unfortunately Ontario is increasing reliance on the U.S. by building four U.S. GE-Hitachi nuclear reactors which require U.S. enriched uranium fuel.

This is not the time to increase our economic and energy dependency on the U.S. Sharing renewable electricity interprovincially can cut that dependency.

As Prime Minister Carney has suggested, Canada can be an energy superpower, but only if we follow the world by focusing on low-cost, reliable renewable energy.

We do not need a power corridor from coast to coast. We need more east-west interconnection of regional and distributed transmission systems. This would allow the growth and sharing of new community-based, low-cost renewable energy, creating local green jobs while meeting Canadian needs.

CRED-NB is a member of the coalition of groups that publish the SMRs Information Task Force Bulletin. This information is from the June 2025 bulletin. Read the full edition HERE.

131 Civil society groups send open letter to PM Carney supporting renewable energy and opposing new nuclear

In a open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, 131 civil society groups expressed support for renewable energy and  opposition to federal investment in new nuclear reactors. Fourteen groups from NB including CRED-NB were among those signing the open letter which was sent on May 21, 2025.

To see the letter click here.

En français, clique ici.

The nuclear divide: Why are women cautious of nuclear energy?

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.