Biased pro-nuclear report is challenged

Full of problems or ripe with promise?

Meridian Booster By Graham Mason 14 May 09

With the Uranium Development Partnership report being presented to the public next month there is a question over how much the environment was taken into consideration in its glowing conclusions.

The report, titled Capturing the Full Potential of the Uranium Value Chain in Saskatchewan, was released March 31.

The nuclear and uranium industry were well represented on the 12-person panel with Duncan Hawthorne, president and CEO of Bruce Power, Armand Laferrere, president and CEO of Areva Canada, and Jerry Grandey, president and CEO of Cameco Corporation. ……………

……………Dr. Patrick Moore founding member of Greenpeace, was the only member to identify himself as an environmentalist.

In a statement before a U.S. congressional committee in Apr. 2005, he described his views on nuclear power generation where he described himself as an ‘environmental moderate.’

………………………………The Saskatchewan Environmental Society couldn’t disagree more in a recent nuclear pamphlet.

“The real solutions to climate change lie in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energy,” said the report. “If we were to provide the same level of support for these options as we have done for the nuclear industry, we could move much faster into the sustainable, low-carbon energy economy which is where the future lies.

The report argues nuclear is not an alternative to fossil-fuelled plants, rather they are both part of an environmentally unsustainable approach to the electricity system.

Coxworth questions whether Moore qualifies to be the environmental conscience of the report.

“Patrick Moore … is a paid consultant to the nuclear industry,” said Coxworth. “Labelling him by his past Greenpeace involvement would be somewhat analogous to identifying me solely by the fact that long ago I worked for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.”

“Doubtless some of the other partnership members have taken some environmental classes as part of their technical education.”

Local public consultations are at Lakeland College on June 10, the Don Ross Centre in North Battleford on June 11 http://www.meridianbooster.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1566432

May 14, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, spinbuster | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, renewables, uranium