Jan. 23, 2018
The Raging Grannies have a New Years message for Premier Wynne: go renewable! 1 min. video.
Ontario
☢ Ontario’s nuclear dreams no match for the reality of falling electricity demand Since 2005, demand for electricity in Ontario has dropped by 16%. That is the equivalent of taking 2.5 million homes off the grid – like unplugging all the houses and apartments in the City of Toronto twice over. Meanwhile, the gov’t is moving forward with rebuilding 10 aging nuke reactors while curtailing 26% of the potential annual output of our cleaner and safer wind and solar power plants.
☢ The pitfalls of short-circuited project reviews Surprisingly, particularly in a province where rising hydro rates are the number one political issue, Ontario’s nuclear reconstruction projects have been subject to even less meaningful public review than the Site C and Muskrat Falls projects. There have been no public hearings at all before the province’s energy regulator on the need for these projects, their likely costs or the availability of alternatives to them.
☢ Groups opposed to new nuclear license march in Ottawa Opposition groups say private consortium lacks proper oversight for nuclear labs. 2 min. video here.
☢ 'Insanity' to allow nuclear waste storage near Ottawa River, Indigenous groups say Canadian Nuclear Laboratories nuke waste dump in Chalk River, ON could be up and running in 2020.
☢ Safety concerns put Darlington project on pause Workers’ ‘at risk’ behaviour led to stand-down in effort to reduce incidents.
☢ Ontario is the 2nd most nuclearized jurisdiction on the planet, second only to France At 60% reliance, Ontario is extending our debt-ridden nuclear hangover by refurbishing reactors that don’t have a business case and amortizing the existing, long-deferred nuclear debt over even more years to prevent current rate payers from paying the true cost of the nuclear fleet. All this when water power from QC, conservation and other renewables could meet our needs at lower cost.
The World
☢ California’s last nuclear station to close after unanimous vote by regulators The unanimous vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will bring an end to nuclear energy. State law forbids building more nuclear plants in California until the federal government creates a long-term solution for dealing with their waste, a goal that remains elusive despite decades of effort.
☢ Canadian Asset Management Firm Buys Bankrupt Westinghouse Nuclear Assets Brookfield Business Partners LP, a unit of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, is about to become the western hemisphere’s biggest nuclear contractor.
☢ Conservative voters support green energy, oppose coal, nuclear bailouts, statewide poll finds A state-wide poll of conservative Ohio voters finds that 85 percent would pay something extra in their monthly bills for power generated by renewable technologies such as wind and solar.
☢ Japan ex-prime minister Koizumi pushes bill to kill nuclear power A group advised by two former Japanese prime ministers unveiled the outline of a bill calling for an immediate shutdown of country's nuclear power stations in favor of natural energy sources. Reducing Japan's nuclear power to zero is a "moral responsibility for the future of the people."
☢ Nuclear Negligence This 6-part series examines safety weaknesses at U.S. nuclear weapon sites operated by corporate contractors. The Center’s probe revealed unpublicized accidents at nuclear weapons facilities. It also discovered that the penalties imposed by the government for these errors were typically small, relative to the tens of millions of dollars the NNSA gives to each of the contractors annually in pure profit.
☢ The Myth of the Peaceful Atom This post written by Dr. Gordon Edwards deals with the history of Canada’s nuclear power program, and its roots in the World War II Atomic Bomb Program.
☢ “Operating a nuclear plant saves less CO2 than investing its avoided operating cost in new efficiency or modern renewables instead, because those cheaper competitors avoid far more CO2 per dollar. Thus continuing to operate uneconomic nuclear plants—requiring vast new subsidies—causes more fossil-fuel CO2 emissions than least-cost choices.” — Amory Lovins, Chief Scientist and Co-founder, Rocky Mountain Institute
Renewables and Conservation
☼ Solar Energy Set to Replace World’s Largest Nuclear Facilities The economics of solar power have become so alluring that one of the world’s largest nuclear power utilities – EDF – is making a “massive push” into solar power while closing reactors.
☼ Ukraine to launch its first solar project at Chernobyl On the contaminated site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the first of many solar projects is being installed. Eventually, the radioactive region will produce 100 times more solar power. Following the 1986 nuclear disaster, Soviet authorities evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and over 2,000 sq kms remain abandoned. People cannot return to live in the zone for "more than 24,000 years", according to the Ukrainian authorities.
☼ World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm Could Send Power to Five Countries The Netherlands is planning to build the largest offshore wind farm on Earth by 2027.
☼ How Solar Power Is Helping Redefine This Alberta First Nation Their switch to solar is about more than clean energy. “When talking about energy we know that extreme energy hasn’t helped us in our path to being well. So we as a community have to define what Indigenous economic sovereignty means to us.”
☼ What Happens When the Wind Doesn’t Blow? 3 min. video and accompanying article by Greenpeace UK: share renewable power with neighbouring jurisdictions; store power in batteries; shift power demand away from peak times. .
☼ Diversify your portfolio with local solar power RRSP & TFSA Eligible. The 6th series of investments with the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative is now open! This is your chance to put your money towards solar power.
Take Action!
☢ Sign our petitions to Close Pickering and to Buy Quebec Power. And share them with your friends. Watch our 2 min. video here.
☢ Stop OPG's Nuclear Waste Dump Before It's Too Late Learn more about OPG’s nuke waste dump proposal in Kincardine, ON, and write Minister McKenna, Premier Wynne and PM Trudeau here.
☢ Tell the Japanese government: don’t dump nuclear waste into the ocean!
☢ Can you spare a few hours to leaflet blitz your neighbourhood mailboxes? Help us make the closure of the Pickering nuclear station a public issue. Contact: angela@cleanairalliance.org
☢ Order your free KI (anti-thyroid-cancer) pills here if you live within 50 km of an ON nuclear facility - that includes all of Toronto and beyond. Download your anti-thyroid cancer posters here to post in your office, school, or local cafe.
☢ Canada – Sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Last year 122 member states of the United Nations voted to approve the text of a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but the Nuclear Weapons States voted against it as did most NATO countries including Canada. This petition asks Canada to sign the Treaty.
Events
☼ Project Drawdown Wed. Jan. 31, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. OCAD University, 100 McCaul St, Auditorium, Toronto. Project Drawdown, founded by author and environmentalist, Paul Hawken, is a scientifically based, comprehensive plan to implement the top 80 solutions to reverse global warming by 2050.
☼ Good Investment Fair Wed. Feb, 21, Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto. Want to earn good financial returns while supporting green energy? Participating organizations include: Community Energy Development Co-operative, CoPower, SolarShare and more.
