Citizens and MPs speak up during parliament nuclear debate
Carl Hagar
Local Journalism Initiative
OTTAWA – Protests, rallies and debates marked the Not-The-Nuclear-Lobby Week day of action in Ottawa against the Canadian government promoting Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMNR) as the answer to fighting climate change. Over the years, the Canadian government has given billions to the nuclear industry in subsidies. In the morning at the eternal flame on Parliament Hill, speakers included Dr. Susan O’Donnell, spokesperson for the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick. “The nuclear energy industry, led by US and UK corporations and start-ups, has been lobbying and advertising heavily in Canada to convince Canadians that new, smaller reactor designs will somehow address the climate crisis and overcome the exorbitant cost, toxic radioactive waste and nuclear accidents that have plagued the nuclear industry for decades,” she said.
At noon, four Members of Parliament representing the Liberal party, NDP, Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party spoke about their concerns. Jenita Atwin, Liberal MP for Fredericton, said, “Radioactive waste management is an unsolved concern and the risks are ultimately unmanageable.” The NDP’s Alexandre Boulerice, MP for Rosemont La Petite-Patrie, remarked, “Eliminating greenhouse gases should not come at the expense of the environment by creating waste that’s even more dangerous.”
The final event of the day was a debate between Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and Dr. Chris Keefer, president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy. The subject was “Do we need to scale up nuclear power to combat climate change?”
Dr. Edwards pointed out that SMNR’s take a decade or longer to start up and are four times as expensive as renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal. He noted that one of the by-products of nuclear power is plutonium, not found in nature, a key component of nuclear bombs. He also worries that expanding the nuclear industry occurs while Canada still does not have a cogent waste disposal plan for nuclear waste.
Dr. Keefer repeatedly remarked that the risk-reward ratio for implementing SMNR’s is worth it; nuclear reactors produce no carbon dioxide and the dangers of radioactive pollution are exaggerated.
The debate was followed by a question and answer session. An indigenous person from northern Ontario pointed out the extreme cost of the nuclear industry, including health, economic and cultural concerns. Catherine Emond of the NDP Pontiac said we have to be better caretakers of the earth’s resources by finding more sustainable ways of doing things.
The on-going saga of licensing for the Chalk River nuclear site, just west of the Pontiac on the Ottawa River, to create nuclear dump will not be resolved until at least this coming summer. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is conducting hearings with Indigenous groups prior to making a final decision.
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