Climate action; Bipolar soars; Food additives; Nukes in Alberta

[angela bischoff]

The Canadian Environment Network has set up a new website to to give
Canadians an opportunity to speak directly to the federal government about
its ongoing refusal to meet Canada’s environmental obligations under both
Canadian law and the Kyoto Protocol. Please go to
http://www.takerealaction.ca today (must be done by Sept. 20) and send a
message to Federal Environment Minister Baird.

------------------------------

PLANET EARTH: THE FUTURE
(Thursday September 4 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)
INTO THE WILDERNESS
What is wilderness and how much is left? Russell Mittermeier of
Conservation International assures us that, by his definition, wilderness
still covers 40% of the planet. But is there enough to provide landscapes
for animals such as the elephants that featured in Planet Earth?
Discuss this series online.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/planetearth_future.html

------------------------------

Bipolar Soars As Diagnosis For the Young

 By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: September 3, 2007,
THE NEW YORK TIMES

The number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar
disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003, researchers are to report on
Tuesday, in the most comprehensive study to look at the controversial
diagnosis. And experts say the numbers have almost certainly risen further
in the years since. <snip>

(read full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/health/04psych.html )

-----------------------------

Food additives appear to increase hyperactivity
Updated Wed. Sep. 5 2007 6:35 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff


Artificial food colouring and preservatives commonly found in many of the
foods children regularly eat appear to lead to increased levels of
hyperactivity, finds a study in The Lancet.


The study found that it wasn't just children with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were affected, but all the children had
trouble with inattention, impulsivity, and overactivity.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070905/food_colouring_070905/20070905?hub=Health

-----------------------------

B.C. border towns balk at Alberta nuclear plan

Sunny Freeman, Vancouver Sun

Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Mayors of towns in B.C.'s Peace River region said Tuesday they want a
voice in discussions about a proposal to build the first nuclear power
plant in western Canada, about 130 kilometres across the border in
Alberta.

Energy Alberta, a Calgary company, wants to build a $6.2-billion
generating plant with two Candu reactors about 30 kilometres west of the
town of Peace River.

Company president Wayne Henuset said the facility is needed to meet
Alberta's explosive economic growth -- which hit 6.8 per cent last year,
tops in the nation.

The B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources has an energy
policy that says, "No nuclear energy."

Mayor Calvin Kruk of Dawson Creek, about 190 kilometres from Peace River,
said the B.C. government has it right.

"My gut reaction is that I'm not so keen on it," Kruk said. "The end
product is still a bit questionable. Obviously, there is a concern for
residents on either side of border."

He thinks a number of clean-energy options have been left unexplored.

"I think we can do better," he said. "We have a fairly extensive wind
project located in the area and we're looking forward to seeing those as
clean, renewable and non-toxic sources of energy."

Kruk said communities in the area will put together a statement expressing
their concerns when a federal review of the proposal is conducted under
the Environmental Assessment Act.

Power from the facility would be split between a large industrial customer
and the Alberta power grid, Henuset said.

Energy Alberta said it has lined up a single customer to take about 70 per
cent of the plant's proposed capacity.

Henuset declined to name the customer, but speculation has centred on a
large oil sands producer that would use the power to generate steam for
enhanced oil recovery.

But Lisa Matthaus of the B.C. chapter of the Sierra Club of Canada said
the whole concept of mining the Alberta oil sands should be re-examined.

"The idea that we should be building these plants at all seems like a
desperate strategy to squeeze more oil out of the dirtiest source of
fossil fuels on the planet," Matthaus said.

The political boundary between Alberta and B.C. means nothing in terms of
possible radiation leakage and nuclear waste, Matthaus added.

"Human errors affect all kinds of things from sinking barges to bursting
oil pipelines. All the regulations in the world don't stop accidents from
happening."

Evan Saugstad, mayor of Chetwynd, 230 kilometres from Peace River, said he
would rather live beside a hydroelectric or gas power plant, or even a
coal plant, than a nuclear power plant.

Saugstad questioned whether there is enough confidence in nuclear power
for the project to go forward.

"In terms of nuclear power, there is no room for error," he said.

But the company said it has the support of Peace River and other
communities on the Alberta side of the Peace region following what it
described as extensive consultations this summer.

"We welcome Energy Alberta to our community," Peace River Mayor Lorne Mann
was quoted as saying in a company news release.

Mann added that the town sees nuclear power as an important part of a
"sustainable" future.

"We understand that this is just the beginning of a lengthy process and we
welcome the chance to become more informed on nuclear energy," Mann said.

As part of the plan, Energy Alberta would initially build one twin-unit
ACR-1000 that will produce 2,200 megawatts of electricity with a targeted
start date of early 2017.

"Building a nuclear power facility is a long and rigorous process. This is
the beginning of a public and regulatory process that will include
environmental, health and safety assessments," said Henuset.

"There's no doubt that Alberta needs a large, reliable clean power source
to meet its future needs. And there's no doubt in my mind that Alberta
needs, and is ready for, nuclear power."

<mailto:sfreeman at png.canwest.com>sfreeman at png.canwest.com

With files from CanWest News Service

--------

see also:

Taking the Peace: Alberta's Nuclear Ambitions
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/content/view/1597/81/

-------



<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/issues/nuclear-energy-&-waste/start/fact-sheet_ne&w.htm>http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/issues/nuclear-energy-&-waste/start/fact-sheet_ne&w.htm

How It Doesn‚t Work ˆ Risks and Dangers of Nuclear Energy

Proliferation Risks
Plutonium is a man-made waste product of nuclear fission, which can be
used either for fuel in nuclear power plants or for bombs.
In the year 2000, an estimated 310 tons (620,000 pounds) of civilian,
weapons-usable plutonium had been produced.
Less than 8 kilograms (about 18 pounds) of plutonium is enough for one
Nagasaki-type bomb. Thus, in the year 2000 alone, enough plutonium was
created to make more than 34,000 nuclear weapons.
The technology for producing nuclear energy that is shared among nations,
particularly the process that turns raw uranium into lowly-enriched
uranium, can also be used to produce highly-enriched, weapons-grade
uranium.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible for
monitoring the world‚s nuclear facilities and for preventing weapons
proliferation, but their safeguards have serious shortcomings. Though the
IAEA is promoting additional safeguards agreements to increase the
effectiveness of their inspections, the agency acknowledges that, due to
measurement uncertainties, it cannot detect all possible diversions of
nuclear material. (Nuclear Control Institute)
Risk of Accident
On April 26, 1986 the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power plant (in the
former U.S.S.R., present-day Ukraine) exploded, causing the worst nuclear
accident ever.
30 people were killed instantly, including 28 from radiation exposure, and
a further 209 on site were treated for acute radiation poisoning.
The World Health Organization found that the fallout from the explosion
was incredibly far-reaching. For a time, radiation levels in Scotland,
over 1400 miles (about 2300 km) away, were 10,000 times the norm.
Thousands of cancer deaths were a direct result of the accident.
The accident cost the former Soviet Union more than three times the
economical benefits accrued from the operation of every other Soviet
nuclear power plant operated between 1954 and 1990.
In March of 1979 equipment failures and human error contributed to an
accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor at Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, the worst such accident in U.S. history. Consequences of the
incident include radiation contamination of surrounding areas, increased
cases of thyroid cancer, and plant mutations.
According to the US House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Oversight &
Investigations, "Calculation of Reactor Accident Consequences (CRAC2) for
US Nuclear Power Plants‰ (1982, 1997), an accident at a US nuclear power
plant could kill more people than were killed by the atomic bomb dropped
on Nagasaki.
Environmental Degradation
All the steps in the complex process of creating nuclear energy entail
environmental hazards.
The mining of uranium, as well as its refining and enrichment, and the
production of plutonium produce radioactive isotopes that contaminate the
surrounding area, including the groundwater, air, land, plants, and
equipment. As a result, humans and the entire ecosystem are adversely and
profoundly affected.
Some of these radioactive isotopes are extraordinarily long-lived,
remaining toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. Presently, we are only
beginning to observe and experience the consequences of producing nuclear
energy
Nuclear Waste
Nuclear waste is produced in many different ways. There are wastes
produced in the reactor core, wastes created as a result of radioactive
contamination, and wastes produced as a byproduct of uranium mining,
refining, and enrichment. The vast majority of radiation in nuclear waste
is given off from spent fuel rods.
A typical reactor will generate 20 to 30 tons of high-level nuclear waste
annually. There is no known way to safely dispose of this waste, which
remains dangerously radioactive until it naturally decays.
The rate of decay of a radioactive isotope is called its half-life, the
time in which half the initial amount of atoms present takes to decay. The
half-life of Plutonium-239, one particularly lethal component of nuclear
waste, is 24,000 years.
The hazardous life of a radioactive element (the length of time that must
elapse before the material is considered safe) is at least 10 half-lives.
Therefore, Plutonium-239 will remain hazardous for at least 240,000 years.
There is a current proposal to dump nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
The plan is for Yucca Mountain to hold all of the high level nuclear waste
ever produced from every nuclear power plant in the US. However, that
would completely fill up the site and not account for future waste.
Transporting the wastes by truck and rail would be extremely dangerous.
For a more detailed analysis of the problems of and risks incurred by the
plan, see
<http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/08/23_krieger_yucca-top10.htm>Top
Ten Reasons to Oppose the DoE‚s Yucca Mountain Plan
Repository sites in Australia, Argentina, China, southern Africa, and
Russia have also been considered.
Though some countries reprocess nuclear waste (in essence, preparing it to
send through the cycle again to create more energy), this process is
banned in the U.S. due to increased proliferation risks, as the
reprocessed materials can also be used for making bombs. Reprocessing is
also not a solution because it just creates additional nuclear waste.
The best action would be to cease producing nuclear energy (and waste), to
leave the existing waste where it is, and to immobilize it. There are a
few different methods of waste immobilization. In the vitrification
process, waste is combined with glass-forming materials and melted. Once
the materials solidify, the waste is trapped inside and can't easily be
released.

<http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/issues/nuclear-energy-&-waste/start/fact-sheet_ne&w.htm>http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/issues/nuclear-energy-&-waste/start/fact-sheet_ne&w.htm


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