A category all its own, despite being a form of energy. The until-now primarily dormant energy form of nuclear power is getting a new lease on construction life in the wake of the astronomical energy needs of the tarsands. The tarsands need a vast and growing energy supply, almost requiring half of what it will produce at the point of consumption. As a means of both feeding that "need" and using the thin-wedge of "thirsting for energy" that is "not greenhouse gas emitting" for the tarsands, this highly dangerous and discredited form of energy is making a slow and speeding up comeback. Again, as a result of peak oil, the resurgence of nuclear energy comes cloaked (in Orwellian fashion) in greenwash rhetoric-- ignoring the level to which greenhouse gasses are A) emitted in construction of power plants that will take several years to finish, and B) need to operate for a decade after that before any noticable depreciation in total greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions are registered. Even though it is portrayed as a boon for the earth, radioactive material is anything but and is yet more of the vast and growing assault on the earth of the tarsands. In complimentary fashion, the tarsands would provide legitimacy for a nuclear industry in a post-oil existence, where Three Mile Island and Chernobyl once took it away.
Cameco President Says Sask Not Quite Ready For Nuclear Plant
By Brynn Harris
Updated May 16, 2008 - 6:13am
The President of a prominent Saskatchewan uranium mining company does not think the province is ready for a nuclear power plant.
Recently, a leaked SaskPower report named Lake Diefenbaker as an ideal spot for one.
Cameco President and CEO, Jerry Grandey, says Saskatchewan does not have enough people to support the electrical output of a nuclear power plant.
Provinces wrangle over nuclear plant
Jon Harding, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
CALGARY -- Alberta and Saskatchewan are competing to house Western Canada's first commercial nuclear power plant, Saskatchewan's Natural Resources Minister Bill Boyd confirmed Tuesday.
Boyd said his Saskatchewan Party government has held "early" talks with Bruce Power LP, the private nuclear operator from Western Ontario.
Hot issue = cool debate
A report that suggests Lake Diefenbaker might be a good location for a nuclear power plant does not mean such a facility will ever be built. It does, however, kickstart a welcome debate.
The Leader-Post
Published: Friday, May 09, 2008
Nuclear energy, we hope, is finally on the table for discussion in Saskatchewan.
B.C.'s uranium ban is irrational, economically irresponsible
Vancouver Sun
Friday, May 09, 2008
The provincial government has slapped a ban on exploration for uranium, outlawed any development of known deposits and imposed a "no registration reserve" to ensure no future claims include rights to the mineral. It has offered no rationale for these draconian measures.
No mention here about the real reason for locating the nukes in Peace River, which is to supply power for Shell in the nearby Grosmont formation for their electric heaters to extract bitumen from limestone.
-Tarpit Pete
Alberta's Peace River area split over bid to build nuclear power plant
1 day ago
PEACE RIVER, Alta. — Dan and Huguette Ropchan stand on the grainy edge of ice-crusted Lac Cardinal in northwest Alberta and worry that in a decade they'll have to raise their wheat and canola in the shadow of monster nuclear cooling towers.
After over a year of very low-key manoeuvering through their privately held subsidiary Sure Northern Energy, Shell finally comes clean with their proposal to use electric heaters to extract bitumen from the limestone-based Grosmont formation, which may host more oil than all the other tar sands combined. If successful, this new "in-situ" method will require massive amounts of electricity convenienty located to the south at the proposed nuclear plants in Peace River and possibly Whitecourt. The perversity of using nukes to heat the earth to extract mock oil is utterly astounding!
Nuclear provider targets oilsands
Natural gas shortage looms by 2030: Areva
Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Alberta's oilsands industry faces a natural gas shortage by 2030 without new energy sources to offset gas use in oilsands expansions, the head of nuclear power giant Areva Canada Inc. said Monday.
Speaking in Calgary, Areva CEO Armand Laferrere said continued oilsands development would consume virtually all of Canada's current natural gas supply -- some 92 per cent -- by 2030.
Speaker says nuclear power about economics
New and unexplored issues surrounding nuclear power were discussed by activist Jim Harding last Thursday evening with his presentation at the Blue Ridge Community Centre.
Whitecourt Star
Gina Racine // Wednesday March 05, 2008
With the numerous presentations made throughout the local area in the past few months, Whitecourt and area residents have had the opportunity to learn about a number of topics surrounding the nuclear debate, on both the pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear sides.
Finally Canada's establishment newspaper gets it right! The proposed partial moratorium is indeed a PR greenwash smokescreen:
Algonquin leader fined, jailed six months; Second uranium mining protester also fined but released on 'compassionate grounds'
Posted By Sue Yanagisawa Whig-Standard Court Reporter
Feb 16/08
The lawyer for a uranium prospecting company, frustrated by an Algonquin-led protest that disrupted the company's plans for test drilling north of Sharbot Lake last summer, said it gave him "no pleasure to ask for incarceration."
