This morning on CBC radio, Canadian Environmental Law Association counsel Kerrie Blaise explained why the federal government needs to designate the ARC-100 SMR (small modular nuclear reactor) for a federal impact assessment.
Kerrie explained that only the wide scope of a federal IA will give the public an opportunity to have many of their questions answered about this first-of-its-kind SMR, including the feasibility of the project as well as its potential environmental impact.
Listen to Kerrie’s interview on CBC Fredericton, HERE.
HERE is the latest update on CRED-NB’s request to federal minister of Environment and Climate Change to designate the project for an impact assessment, including links to the request in July and the response from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada in October.
Rallies will be held across Canada on Saturday Nov. 5 in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people and the defense of their land from a proposed gas pipeline. The Coastal Gaslink (CGL) pipeline would transport fracked natural gas across Wet’suwet’en territory to a proposed export terminal in Kitimat, BC.
The Climate Justice Coalition in the Moncton region is joining with other environmental and Indigenous allies and groups such as Decolonial Solidarity, LeadNow, Extinction Rebellion, the Suzuki Foundation, 350.org, and others on November 5th to oppose development of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. The rally will be focussed on the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the largest funder of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. Details for the action in Moncton are below:
Decolonial Solidarity Moncton – We Are All One – Kill the Drill Start: Saturday, November 05, 2022 11:15 AM Royal Bank of Canada 719 Mountain Rd Moncton, NB E1C 8H9
“Earlier this week, the Government of New Brunswick delivered its speech from the throne to open a new session of the legislature. The speech did not respectfully reflect that it was delivered on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey peoples, rather it adopted Higgs’ government’s new revisionist land acknowledgement which fails to recognize our Nations as the proper title and rights holders over these lands, and ignores the solemn promises of our Peace and Friendship Treaties.”
Read the full statement by Indigenous leaders HERE.
Did you know that modern medicine does not depend on nuclear power? All electricity producing reactors in Canada and around the world could be shut down permanently with little or no impact on best medical practices.
Hospitals do not need nuclear power, and never have. Any isotopes (radioactive materials) that are considered medically required can be produced by accelerators or small research reactors. These are different reactors than the kind that produce electricity.
For more info, check out the fact sheet produced by the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, HERE. At the end of the one-page fact sheet is a link to more detailed information supporting all the facts.
Premier Blaine Higgs has hinted he would like to end the moratorium on fracking in the province. The premier is also pushing a private-sector company, Repsol, to convert its Saint John LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal into an export terminal to help Germany with its energy woes.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and CRED-NB core member the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) have published a fact sheet to unpack this situation. Read it HERE.
M.V. Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is one of Canada’s foremost authorities on nuclear energy and “small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).”
In this two-part article published by the NB Media Co-op, Ramana analyzes the cost factors related to SMRs. Read it HERE.
The second part of the article, “Slow deployment, safety hazards make SMRs a poor climate solution,” discusses why SMRs should not feature in a climate action plan. Read it HERE.
UNB’s Harrison Dressler wrote two stories this month about coverage of nuclear issues by corporate media in New Brunswick. The first, HERE, analyzed how the media incorporated Indigenous perspectives.
Dressler’s second article looked at how the newspapers he analyzed relied on pro-industry sources for their articles. Read it HERE.
Today the environmental organization New Clear Free Solutions asked for a review of its model to transform NB Power to a renewable energy utility in a way that will keep electricity rates low and achieve its required equity goals. The request is supported by the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB).
On July 4, the NB Power board fired its CEO and engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Canada to perform a strategic review to transform the utility. The letter sent today to the NB Power board Chair Charles V. Firlotte requested a meeting between New Clear Solutions founder Chris Rouse and the team conducting the strategic review at PwC Canada.
Chris Rouse, with more than 25 years’ experience in industrial systems engineering, has been an intervener in three of the last four NB Power rate hearings. He developed an alternative Integrated Resource Plan for NB Power with the following elements:
-Achieves a 95% renewable energy mix by 2040 or sooner
-Maintains low and stable rates
-Achieves NB Power equity targets in the near term, and pays down NB Power debt and makes NB Power very profitable in the longer term
-Creates significant economic activity and jobs
“For successive years NB Power management teams has ignored alternative plans to make public investments in renewable energy. The firing of the CEO and engagement of PwC is an opportunity for transformative change to develop a public electricity utility that New Brunswickers need,” said Rouse.
The model proposed by New Clear Free Solutions has been validated by NB Power, which included the model as an appendix in its 2017 IRP but they never implemented it. “This is in spite of their own review of the modeling performed by NB Power System Planning Engineer Darren Clark who stated at a rate hearing “We reviewed Mr. Rouse’s model and functionally I believe the majority of what he is setting out to do, the model is accomplishing.”
The letter to NB Power states that NB Power has two main ways to achieve the transformational economic and environmental goals the board is looking for. The first is large rate increases which would be “unpopular” considering inflationary pressures already on New Brunswickers. The second option, which this plan promotes, is an equity injection from our carbon tax revenue into NB Power, to invest in renewables and efficiency in lieu of rate increases. This is already possible under current legislation, and a great way to give the carbon tax back to New Brunswickers to help curb inflation.
The letter states that ”Using the carbon tax revenue to make investments in renewables and efficiency not only enables NB Power to meet its equity target without significant rate increases, but also reduces fuel and purchased power cost that will give NB Power more free cash flow to reinvest. This reinvestment will compound like compound interest and will exponentially transition the electricity grid to 95% renewable, achieve equity targets and make NB Power very profitable.”
The Coalition for Responsible Energy Development (CRED-NB) speaks for more than 20 groups and 120 individuals in the province advocating for a nuclear-free renewable energy future endorsed the meeting request. Representative Susan O’Donnell stated “CRED-NB is interested to see a third-party review of how this plan for NB Power can support a sustainable energy future for all New Brunswickers.”
The letter to NB Power is available on the New Clear Free Solutions website, HERE.
An article by Harrison Dressler in the NB Media Co-op analyzes corporate media coverage of nuclear issues. Dressler found that:
“Stories that offered a positive outlook on small modular reactors were published far more frequently than stories critical of the technology. In the former case, Indigenous sources were almost always absent. Indeed, a pro-SMNR coalition (comprised of actors drawn from the nuclear industry and government) included only three Indigenous sources in their 13 published articles on the topic, all of which favored the adoption of small modular reactors.”
Nuclear waste remains the elephant in the room at all nuclear industry events: nobody wants to talk about the toxic radioactive materials created during and after the generation of nuclear power.
Read the latest commentary by Kim Reeder in the NB Media Co-op, HERE.
