nuclear-news

“Clean, clean, clean!”-says Canada’s budget – But still, nuclear power is still dirty

It is time to formally (and very publicly) demand an end, with public retraction, of the false and misleading use of the term “clean” when referring to nuclear energy on the part of provincial and federal levels of government as well as members of the nuclear industry and their advertising media (many articles we see are actually paid advertisements looking like news reports). 

The nuclear energy generation’s constant production and release of Category 1 carcinogens and having perpetually poisonous wastes as byproducts completely disqualifies nuclear energy from being described as “clean”

Page 81:

“Budget 2023 announces that the Canada Infrastructure Bank will invest
at least $10 billion through its Clean Power priority area, and at least
$10 billion through its Green Infrastructure priority area. This will allow
the Canada Infrastructure Bank to invest at least $20 billion to support
the building of major clean electricity and clean growth infrastructure
projects. These investments will be sourced from existing resources.
These investments will position the Canada Infrastructure Bank as the
government’s primary financing tool for supporting clean electricity generation,
transmission, and storage projects, including for major projects such as the
Atlantic Loop.“

We’ve been focused on funds coming from the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) that has an $8 billion envelope and has been the main source of direct funding to SMR companies so far. 

However it was the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) that gave a $970 million “low interest loan” to Ontario Power Generation for its SMR last October.

So the CIB now has $20 billion to spend on ‘clean’ projects? OMG.

We know through an Access to Information request that Moltex made its sales pitch to the CIB and most probably others have been lining up at the CIB trough.  Normally we would assume the CIB could not lend money to Moltex because it’s a startup with no funds of its own aside from previous public grants. But who knows? Now after the announcement a few hours before the budget that SNC Lavalin is a minority partner in Moltex, maybe they would qualify for a CIB “loan.” Follow the money, follow the money…..

To be continued, obviously…

the alarming news is that these fiscal incentives include “processing or recycling of nuclear fuels” which is currently not permitted in Canada. We are expecting the new radioactive waste management policy to be released in the next few days. If the policy has changed to allow plutonium reprocessing, it will be indicated there.

March 30, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, secrets,lies and civil liberties, spinbuster