CCNB Action endorses the call made today by the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility for all federal political parties to support the creation of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Nuclear Power in Canada in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan. Read more here…
CCNB Supports Call for Royal Commission into the Future of Nuclear Power and Calls for New Mandate for Lepreau Committee
Visiting nuclear physicist addresses gaps in the mandate of the Select Committee on Point Lepreau
In response to the New Brunswick Government’s refusal to expand the Select Committee on Point Lepreau’s mandate to include safety, CCNB Action has invited Dr. Michel Duguay, a nuclear physicist, to comment on safety issues and lessons from the Japanese nuclear disaster that apply to the Point Lepreau refurbishment. Read more here.
David Coon vs Craig Leonard on decommissioning Lepreau
Video interviews by Charles LeBlanc, the blogger.
A nuclear wake-up call
By Janice Harvey
How should we think about the situation in Japan?
One can’t imagine the scale of personal and physical devastation visited by the earthquake and tsunami, both natural disasters which, while predicted, cannot be controlled. The unfolding nuclear disaster is different. It is a man-made event, set in play by the decision to build the nuclear plants in the first place.
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Nuclear waste can’t be managed
By Larry Lack and Lee Ann Ward
An article in a recent issue of our community newspaper, the St. Croix Courier, alerted us to $31,000 that reportedly has been offered to School District 10, Fundy High School, Eastern Charlotte Waterways (ECW), and Coastal Livelihoods Trust (CLT) by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), an organization that is funded by major players in Canada’s nuclear industry.
We hope the groups that have been offered this funding (as well as the Fundy Community Foundation) will consider whether accepting this money is in the long-term interest of our communities or of our young people.
Why is Hydro-Quebec silent about the Point Lepreau fiasco?
The Mouvement sortons le Québec du nucléaire (MSQN) is asking Hydro-Quebec why they are not informing Quebeckers about the massive delays, cost overruns, and technical blunders associated with the refurbishment of Lepreau.
Pointless Lepreau Street Theatre this Wednesday!
Please join us for Pointless Lepreau Street Theatre this Wednesday, Jan. 26 at 12 noon in front of the NB Power building on the corner of King St./Carleton St.
Pointless Lepreau Reappears in New Brunswick
For immediate release
Fredericton, New Brunswick
January 19, 2011
Pointless Lepreau Reappears in New Brunswick
White Elephant Symbolizes What the Province Doesn’t Want to Talk About
The Point Lepreau nuclear generating station provides the quintessential definition of a white elephant.
The aging nuclear plant opened its doors three times over budget in 1983. The Energy and Utilities Board refused to support spending on refurbishing it beyond its expected lifetime, but politicians went ahead anyway. Today, costs for the touch-and-go overhaul are already over $1.4 billion. The latest guess at a completion date is May 2012, a delay of almost three years. Damage to public and worker health and the environment have yet to be calculated and the final costs for taxpayers may not end for generations.
An alliance of public interest groups in New Brunswick, known as the Point Lepreau Decommissioning Caucus, is spreading a simple, but powerful message: Point Lepreau is a white elephant, we don’t need it. Pointless Lepreau is old, sickly and on its last legs: Do Not Resuscitate.
To underline the foolishness of refurbishing Lepreau, the groups are holding surprise events featuring their newest member, an actual white elephant costume aptly named Pointless Lepreau.
This Elephant in the NB Legislature is so big the new Energy Commission isn’t even allowed to talk about it, forcing politicians to setup a separate panel for it alone. Pointless Lepreau is so big that New Brunswick courtrooms can’t hold it, so the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has to hold hearings about it in Ottawa, where New Brunswickers can’t hear just how bad it is.
The Pointless Lepreau white elephant symbolizes how no one wants to talk about it
You can expect to be seeing it around the province, reminding us all that we do not need what it stands for.
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For more information contact members of the Point Lepreau Decommissioning Caucus:
Willi Nolan 506-785-4660 willi@iicph.org
Matt Abbott 506-529-8838 marine@conservationcouncil.ca
Raphael Shay 506-458-8747 energy@conservationcouncil.ca
Beth McLaughlin 506-854-6399 occur@nbnet.nb.ca
Weighing N.B.’s nuclear future
Published Saturday January 8th, 2011 in the Telegraph-Journal.
Keith Helmuth, Commentary
Why would a Conservative want a nuclear reactor?
In the case of Premier Richard Hatfield, probably for the same reason he wanted the Bricklin.
Richard Hatfield was, after all, a Progressive Conservative, and, indeed, considerably more progressive than most of his party compatriots. Having transcended his small town Carleton County roots, he had a view of modernizing development for the province that built on Louis Robichaud’s vision of equal opportunity. It was Richard Hatfield who made the oft-repeated remark about New Brunswickers no longer being “carriers of water and hewers of wood.” So when the nuclear power salesmen came along from Ontario, it made sense to him that we might become carries of CANDU’s heavy water and splitters of atoms.
“Heavy” carrying, indeed, as the case has turned out to be.
Nuclear Safety Commission Denies NB Groups Right to Hold Lepreau Hearing in New Brunswick: Canadian Senators Misled about Safety Reports
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commissioner (CNSC) has denied the request of over twenty New Brunswick public interest groups to move a hearing for extending the Point Lepreau operating licence to New Brunswick, instead of Ottawa. The group is asking that the people who are actually affected by decisions about Lepreau be allowed the opportunity to fully participate, make presentations in person and clarify conflicting reports about the Lepreau refurbishment at the hearing.
While most Canadians were swept up in holiday activities, members of the concerned groups stayed at their desks to ask CNSC, senators and elected officials to stand up for them and ensure that the hearings are held in the province. The Commission set a December 20, 2010 deadline for accepting public comments and told group members that it will only allow written submissions. However, NB Power is scheduled to make an oral presentation at the hearing.
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