nuclear

Bruce Power CEO Mike Rencheck believes the amount generated for the Saugeen Ojibway Nation will reach anywhere between the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the marketing and sale of an isotope used to treat cancer.

The outage at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick was supposed to last 22 days, with five additional days allotted to address issues. It’s now been offline for more than 40 days. NB Power, which owns the station, said it expects the plant will be back online later this week.

Episode 13 of Maxed Out takes us from The Simpsons to modern-day Germany. It also offers an analysis of where nuclear energy stands compared to renewables and what Big Oil has to do with all of this.

Next-generation nuclear technology “has no part in fighting the climate emergency,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Tuesday as a handful of MPs joined anti-nuclear activists to voice concern about the federal government’s intention to expand nuclear power. 

New Brunswick saw a six per cent rise in emissions, according to the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, which put out a provincial breakdown of the federal government’s National Inventory Report. That report, based on the most recent data available from 2021, is an analysis provided to the United Nations to show a country’s progress on reaching climate targets. 

This month marks the 12th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, when three nuclear reactors in Japan suffered catastrophic meltdowns.

The federal government is banking on a new generation of nuclear technology to help us clean up power grids and reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. But will it work?

The federal government has decided not to require a federal assessment for a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) proposed by New Brunswick Power at Point Lepreau, prompting criticism from experts opposed to the technology who fear the rejection sets an “unfortunate precedent.”

Under the new policy, Japan will maximize the use of existing reactors by restarting as many of them as possible and prolonging the operating life of aging ones beyond a 60-year limit. The government also pledged to develop next-generation reactors.

The most recent shutdown follows a week-long stoppage in August due to equipment issues and planned summer maintenance that went a month longer than expected.

The Ontario government will not reconsider plans to close the Pickering nuclear station and instead stop-gap the consequent electricity shortfall with natural gas-generated power in a move that will hike the province’s greenhouse gas emissions substantially.

A nuclear energy advocacy group is calling for Ontario to extend the life of the Pickering nuclear power plant as the province faces an impending electricity crunch.

European Union lawmakers voted on Wednesday, July 6, 2022, to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.

Coming into operation in the 1980s, the station is one of four in Canada and the only nuclear power station outside of Ontario.

As a society, we need to acknowledge the tradeoffs of all these options for achieving net-zero and discuss what impacts we will accept.