The Higgs government formalized its support for the development of new nuclear reactors (so-called small modular nuclear reactors, SMRs) in New Brunswick. The throne speech claimed: “If New Brunswick can develop advanced SMRs right here at home and achieve just 1 per cent of the estimated Canadian market, it would mean $190 million in annual direct and indirect impacts to New Brunswick.” The numbers don’t add up.
Read the story by Susan O’Donnell in the NB Media Co-op.
SMRs do not belong in a climate action plan. We are in a climate emergency.
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OTTAWA, November 18, 2020 – Groups from across Canada called on the federal government today to halt its plans to fund experimental new small nuclear reactors (SMRs) and to take real action against climate change by investing more in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Natural Resources Canada announced that it would be launching at an industry conference on Nov. 18 the government’s SMR Action Plan. However the launch was postponed. The SMR Action Plan is a strategy to fund and support the development of experimental nuclear reactors by private sector companies, the majority based in the US and UK.
Dozens of organizations from coast to coast have called the proposed new nuclear reactors a dirty, dangerous distraction from tackling climate change. They include Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada, Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive, Équiterre, the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick, and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.
The Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Green Party all oppose the government’s “small” modular nuclear reactor (SMR) plan. A Special Chiefs Assembly of the Assembly of First Nations passed a unanimous resolution in December 2018 demanding “that the Government of Canada cease funding and support of the Small Modular Nuclear Reactors program” (Resolution no. 62).
On November 13, Monique Pauze from the Bloc Québécois stated: “The Bloc Québécois denounces the intention of Ottawa to invest in nuclear energy to the benefit, once again, of the Ontario industrial sector, instead of financing the transition towards clean electricity. The Bloc calls for the abandonment of the anticipated deployment of small modular nuclear reactors. The Federal government is leading Canada towards a wall by betting on nuclear energy that is absolutely not clean.”
NDP natural resources critic Richard Cannings said in a statement: “Many Canadians have concerns about impacts of nuclear energy. When it comes to energy generation there are better ways forward. We have options that are cheaper and safer and will be available quicker. I think we should be supporting the development of energy storage solutions to help roll out renewables like solar and wind on a larger scale instead.”
On November 10, all three Green Party of Canada caucus members issued a statement and signed a letter to Minister O’Regan and Minister Navdeep Bains saying that: “Small nuclear reactors (SMRs) have no place in any plan to mitigate climate change when cleaner and cheaper alternatives already exist. The federal government must stop funding the nuclear industry and instead redirect investments towards smarter solutions. Nuclear fails on many grounds, including on the economics.”
Prof. Susan O’Donnell from the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick said: “Building new nuclear reactors does not belong in a climate action plan. Leading researchers have shown that investing in renewable energy is the best path to net zero and that adding nuclear energy to the mix actually hinders rather than helps.”
Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Director of Programs at Greenpeace Canada, said: “The Liberal government is throwing good money after bad. Hypothetical new nuclear power technologies have been promising to be the next big thing for the last forty years, but in spite of massive public subsidies, that prospect has never panned out.”
The proposed reactors are still on the drawing board and will take a decade or more to develop. If built, their power will cost ten times more than wind or solar energy. The most advanced SMR project to date in the US has already doubled its estimated cost – from $3B to over $6B.
The federal government announced its first SMR grant of $20 million to Terrestrial Energy on October 15.
The MPs and environmental groups are shocked that the government is funding new nuclear energy development with no parliamentary review, while trying to avoid public scrutiny and debate. They called the consultation process leading up to the SMR Action Plan a sham. Individuals and groups could only comment on the plan if they first signed on to a statement of principles supporting SMR technologies.
Nuclear power and uranium mining will always be dirty and dangerous. Radioactive waste will have to be kept out of the environment for many thousands of years, and there is no known way of doing that.
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Media contacts:
| Eva Schacherl613-316-9450evaschacherl@gmail.com | Susan O’Donnell506-261-1727susanodo.unb@gmail.com |
Contacts pour les médias :
| Ginette Charbonneau ginettech@hotmail.ca514-246-6439 | Gilles Provostartscience@videotron.ca514- 523-5704 |
Both the federal and New Brunswick governments are claiming that the prototype nuclear reactors will help to tackle the climate crisis.
CRED-NB member Susan O’Donnell from the UNB RAVEN project writes two articles in the NB Media Co-op on this topic. You can read them by clicking on the headlines below.
Are New Brunswick’s prototype nuclear reactors part of a climate action plan?
Why are the federal and New Brunswick governments funding prototype nuclear reactors?
CRED-NB is endorsing a panel event on Nov. 19 organized by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. The event is free and features speakers from across the political spectrum, MPs from the NDP, Greens, Liberals and Bloc Québécois. For more info and to sign up for the event, visit this site. The question from CRED-NB is: what is the link between the civilian nuclear industry and the nuclear weapons industry? We know some of the story and would like to learn more!
CRED-NB members Sam Arnold, with the Sustainable Energy Group in Carleton County, and Susan O’Donnell, with the RAVEN project at the University of New Brunswick, published an article today in The Hill Times. Their article describes how the federal government is blocking groups and individuals opposed to new federal funding for nuclear reactors from expressing their opinions through the usual government channels. You can read their article here.
Today, the government made its first SMR funding announcement: $20 million from ISED’s Strategic Innovation Fund for the company Terrestrial Energy to develop its prototype SMR in Ontario.
Anyone interested in evidence-based policy is wondering: Why are they doing this? There is no evidence that nuclear power will achieve carbon reduction targets, while there is considerable research indicating the contrary.
In fact, in today’s funding announcement, federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan confirmed that the new reactor will take more than a decade to develop and will contribute nothing to Canada’s 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Read the rest of the story on Rabble by author Susan O’Donnell, lead researcher of the RAVEN project and CRED-NB member.
The New Brunswick government and NB Power are supporting the development of two new nuclear reactors on the Bay of Fundy at Point Lepreau.
Join a webinar to learn from international experts about the risks of the new reactors, information missing from the NB Power website.
Day: Wednesday, October 21
Time: 3pm Atlantic | 2pm Eastern | 1pm Central | noon Mountain | 11am Pacific
Click this zoom link to register for the event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_8Vm58sHFTaOiZe2dfhC_ZQ
The event is co-hosted by Beyond Nuclear and Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) and the Canadian Environmental Law Association. (CELA)
Panelists:
KERRIE BLAISE , Staff Lawyer, Canadian Environmental Law Association.
EDWIN LYMAN, Director of Nuclear Power Safety, Union of Concerned Scientists.
M.V. RAMANA, Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia.
Moderator: Linda Pentz Gunter, international specialist, Beyond Nuclear;
Host: Paul Gunter, director, Reactor Oversight Project, Beyond Nuclear;
Co-host: Susan O’Donnell, lead researcher on the University of New Brunswick’s RAVEN project, a member of CRED-NB.
And with contributions by Dr. Gordon Edwards (Canada) and Dr. David Lowry (UK).
Small “Mythical” Reactors, also known as small modular reactors, or, more properly, small modular nuclear reactors, are uneconomical, years away from implementation, don’t answer the climate crisis or jobs needs, and come with the same inherent risks and radioactive waste problems as the current large reactors. Yet the nuclear industry, governments and the media continue to embrace them as something “new” and beneficial.
Learn how to make the case that small modular nuclear reactors:
-Have no role in climate action;
-Could jeopardize security and safety;
-Will cost as much as traditional reactors;
-Won’t deliver the promised jobs panacea;
-Are intrinsically tied to the nuclear weapons sector; and more.
Click this zoom link to register for the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_8Vm58sHFTaOiZe2dfhC_ZQ
Facebook event notice:https://www.facebook.com/events/281651552876737
Hope you can join us!
Climate Action Rally in Fredericton at the office of the premier, Sept. 25, 2020.
Read the NB Media Co-op story here.
For more than a year, renewable energy and anti-nuclear activists in New Brunswick and across the country have watched nuclear industry lobbyists re-position their product as the solution to the climate crisis. Indeed, days before the Throne Speech, federal Natural Resources minister Seamus O’Regan claimed that nuclear power was necessary for Canada to meet its net-zero emissions target.
Given its legacy of toxic radioactive waste, nuclear energy would not be considered “clean technology” by most Canadians. However the nuclear industry has been working hard to scrub its image.
Read the NB Media Co-op story about the rally, here.
New Brunswick residents want climate action and a nuclear-free renewable energy future. CRED-NB member Extinction Rebellion New Brunswick (XR NB) organized a rally Sept. 25, the Global Day of Climate Action, outside the office of the premier of New Brunswick. The message to our political leadership was clear: no new nukes for New Brunswick!
Speakers included David Coon, MLA for Fredericton South and leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick, Doug Swain of XR NB, Jessica Spencer of XR NB, Chris Rouse of New Clear Free Solutions and Ron Tremblay, Chief of the Wolastoq Grand Council.
CRED-NB buttons: More Nuclear? No Thanks! were distributed widely.
Amit Virmani, CEO of Naveco Energy in New Brunswick, recently wrote an article in Huddle explaining why wind and solar, not nuclear, are the energy sources we need to be developing now. You can read his story here.
He discusses why wind and solar energy are clean, affordable, efficient, quicker to build, less risky overall, and more rapidly developing than nuclear energy. Wind and solar energy represent the best opportunities we have at present to transition to clean, renewable energy.
