Guest guest Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 --- Ontario Clean Air Alliance <contact wrote: Nuclear plan meltdown The headline said it all: " Plan for new nuclear programme approachesmeltdown after report. " But it wasn't talking about theOntario government's pending decision on whether or not to re-investbillions in tried-and-failed nuclear power. It was talking about theverdict of the British Sustainable Development Commission on thatcountry's all-too-familiar proposal to once again place a high-risk beton nuclear power to meet its future electricity needs. According to The Independent newspaper, the British Commissionfound five " major disadvantages " in going nuclear: The lack of a long-term strategy for dealing with highly toxicnuclear waste Uncertainty over the cost of new nuclear stations and the risk thattaxpayers would be left to pick up the tab; The danger that going down the nuclear route would lock the UK into acentralized system for distributing energy for the next 50 years; The risk a new nuclear program would undermine efforts to improveenergy efficiency; The threat of terrorist attacks and radiation exposure if othercountries with lower safety standards also opt for nuclear. Unfortunately, the only fundamental difference between the flawsidentified in the British plan and the flaws in the Ontario plan are onesof scale and performance: Ontario is considering meeting a largerpercentage of its electricity needs with nuclear power, and our currentnuclear units have performed even worse than the aging Britishfleet. David Suzuki and Paul McKay (author of Electric Empire: The InsideStory of Ontario Hydro) have similarly pointed out just how outdatedthe Ontario nuclear energy proposal (and its mirror-image British plan)really are. Comparing the centralized nuclear approach to continuing torely mainly on mainframe computing in 2006, Suzuki and McKay argue thatit is the equivalent of ignoring the existence of laptops andBlackberries. You can read more about the Sustainable Development Commission reportathttp://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/060306.html You can read the David Suzuki-Paul McKay article athttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060309.wcomment0309/Email\ BNStory/National/home Please pass this message on to your friends. Thank you. Jessica Fracassi Communications & Membership Manager Ontario Clean Air Alliance 402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1 Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 245 Fax: 416-926-1601 Email: info Website:www.cleanairalliance.org The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is a coalition of health, environmentaland consumer organizations, faith communities, unions, utilities,municipalities and individuals working for cleaner air through a coalphase-out and the shift to a renewable electricity future. Ourpartner organizations represent more than six million Ontarians. I have decided to do the CN Tower Climb for World Wildlife Fund. this link should take you to the 'sponsor a climber' page, where you can search by name for someone. search for my name (alison syer) and you should be able to find it. https://wwfcentral.ca/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx? & pid=232 & srcid=232 & tab=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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