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Embrace sustainable and wiser power generation,
nuclear critic tells New Brunswick
by ALAN COCHRANE,
Canadaeast News Service
New Brunswick should invest its money in alternative and renewable
sources of electricity, rather than spend billions of dollars on nuclear
power plants that provide short-term benefits and long-term problems,
nuclear critic Dr. Gordon Edwards said.
"Instead of jumping from the carbon frying pan into the nuclear fire,
we need to find alternative sources of energy," Edwards said in an
interview following an hour-long presentation at Mount Allison
University in Sackville. He said countries like Germany are
embracing wind and solar power, which are becoming progressively
cheaper to set up and much safer for the environment and the
people around it than nuclear power.
"The question New Brunswickers need to ask themselves is whether
they want to be a launching pad for the spread of more nuclear
technology around the world."
New Brunswick is currently preparing to refurbish the existing nuclear
generating station at Point Lepreau and considering the construction
of a second reactor nearby. This comes amid reports that New
Brunswick's demand for electricity is actually declining and the
province has the capability to import cheaper electricity from
neighbouring jurisdictions.
Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility,
has fought for transparency and accountability from Canada's nuclear
industry. He has acted as a consultant to many government
organizations, such as the Auditor General of Canada and the Ontario
Royal Commission on Electric Power Planning.
In his presentation, Edwards traced the history of uranium,
radioactivity and the serious health risks associated with an element he believes
should be left in the ground where it can't hurt anybody.
Uranium is a natural element that remains dormant underground. The
problems occur when it is brought to the surface.
He said exploration and testing for uranium, which has been proposed
for areas around the Turtle Creek watershed area - home of Metro
Moncton's water supply - is too dangerous to comprehend. So far,
local councils have rejected the idea of exploring for uranium.
He said drilling and testing creates small holes in the rock which act
as "chimneys for the radon gas to escape" and allow contamination
to spread into the water supply.
"It's difficult to assess and track, but it is definitely bad news."
Bringing uranium to the surface through mining operations can release
dust particles that can be lethal even in tiny quantities. Uranium goes
through many changes into many more lethal types of radioactive
particles that can invade the human body, mutate cells and cause
all sorts of damage. Uranium mines in Ontario have large deposits
of waste materials that will remain toxic for hundreds of thousands
of years.
He pointed to a modern artificial lake in Saskatchewan equipped
with pumping stations that was built to house waste material from
uranium mines.
"It's an ingenious plan, but is it going to last for 800,000 years?"
Waste rock from uranium mines is often dumped and reclaimed
for use as building materials like stone and concrete, resulting in
new homes being constructed of radioactive material.
He said nuclear generating stations routinely emit radioactive
materials and are powered by small uranium pellets enclosed in
metal bundles which generate heat.
"You can get the energy out of the pellet if you accept the
responsibility of looking after it for the next million years."
After the pellets are spent, they must be cooled for several
years before they can be stored, but they continue to generate
heat and radioactivity for many years after that.
In the long run, he said, nuclear energy is just a flash in the pan.
It will take billions of dollars to construct and set up a generating
station that will last maybe 30 years, and take billions more to shut
down when its lifespan is over.
Then there is the issue of nuclear weapons. For many years, much
of the uranium mined in Canada went to the United States for use
in making weapons. Edwards said former Prime Minister Lester
Pearson outlawed that in the 1960s, but uranium still finds its way
into weapons. And if uranium continues to be mined for use in
electrical generating plants, at least some of it will continue to be
funneled into weapons. This continues to feed what he calls the
"hypocritcal double standard" that some countries like the U.S.
and Britain are allowed to have nuclear weapons while others
are not, and they would use those weapons to prevent other
countries from making their own.
He believes that if New Brunswick allows another nuclar generating
plant to be established in this province, it would act as a
springboard for the technology to be used in other parts of the world.
After speaking at Mount Allison yesterday, Edwards continued to
another speech in Saint John. He is scheduled to speak today at
St. Thomas University in Fredericton. His speaking tour was
sponsored by the New Brunswick Conservation Council and
various university groups.
Published in the Telegraph-Journal
Saint John, New Brunswick
Page 1, 25 February 2008,
The same article was front page of the Moncton N.B.
Times & Transcript as well under the title:
Invest in renewable power, N.B. told.
Dr. Gordon Edwards was the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Education Award recipient.
Telegraph-Journal
Published Friday February 29th, 2008
Appeared on page A4
Dr. Gordon Edwards' talk, reported Feb. 25, was at Mount Allison. Were
there no physicists there? Some of his comments were outrageous.
Drilling a hole in the ground makes a chimney for radon to escape!
Consider: Carbon dioxide is only 50 per cent heavier than air, but you
can pour it out of a cup to extinguish a flame. Chlorine gas was used
as a weapon in the First World War creeping along the ground impelled
by the wind, it was 2.5 times as heavy as air. An exploratory gas well
in the Rockies hit a high pressure sour gas pocket (sulfur oxides,
poisonous, twice as heavy as air). The gas poured down a creek bed
killing animals along the gully, but not higher up the banks.
Radon is eight times as heavy as air and not poisonous. Tell me what
that means. What should Dr. Edwards have said?
Uranium is just as radioactive underground as on the surface. Heat,
cold, and pressure don't affect decay rates, so they make radioactive
clocks because of their superior accuracy. It is never "dormant."
That said, uranium fuel pellets are so low in radioactivity (until
used!) that they can be handled without gloves.
He is quoted as saying that nuclear stations routinely "emit"
radioactive materials. A physicist would say, correctly, that they
create them, but they are contained in the reactor building. I have
read that Lepreau has 30 years of these stored.
No problem.
And someday they may find it another valuable asset.
STUART MILLS
Stuart Mills is correct to point out that radon gas is eight times heavier than air, but he is wrong to say that it is not poisonous – it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in North America.
He is also wrong to suggest that unplugged boreholes (drilled to explore for uranium deposits) pose no threat to the surface environment.
The World Health Organization reports that "Water from deep drilled wells normally has much higher concentrations of radon than surface water from rivers, lakes, and streams. Radon released from underground waters (springs, wells and boreholes) easily permeates through the rock to the surface and into buildings. Radon gas enters houses through openings such as cracks at concrete floor-wall junctions, gaps in the floor, small pores in hollow-block walls, and through sumps and drains...."
In the South of England (Devon and Cornwall), private water sources have been contaminated with radon due to boreholes. "Some private [water] supplies, notably from wells or boreholes, can contain high levels of dissolved radon. Radon release from water usage in these cases can contribute to room air concentrations and may also increase intestinal cancer risks though direct ingestion of the water."
As for routine radioactive emissions from CANDU reactors, Mr. Mills seems unaware that the Lepreau reactor releases more than 40 trillion becquerels of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) into the air every year, and a comparable amount into the water. Two dozen other radioactive species are released into the environment annually in much smaller amounts.
Mr. Mills mentions that a fresh uranium fuel element can be held safely in the hands. True. But the Lepreau reactor discharges irradiated fuel elements, which are so radioactive that just one discharged fuel bundle will give any unprotected human being a lethal dose of radiation in 20 seconds at a distance of one metre.
Citizens have a right to know about the dangers that the nuclear industry routinely exposes them to – and keeps them ignorant of.
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