No Nukes News - Don't Nuke the Climate

Angela Bischoff - OCAA angela at cleanairalliance.org
Fri Nov 13 18:35:15 EST 2009


No Nukes News

Nov. 13 /09

 

To read past No Nukes News, or if this newsletter gets cut off before the
signature, go to: http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/nonukesnews.php 

 

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30 second action

 

OCAA salutes former Ontario Energy Minister George Smitherman on his past
accomplishments. First, he suspended the procurement process for two new
nuclear reactors, and second, his Green Energy Act’s feed-in-tariff prices
for Made-in-Ontario renewable electricity will stimulate the development of
large supplies of green electricity in Ontario. 

 

Please write incoming Energy Minister Gerry Phillips
Gerry.Phillips at ontario.ca and tell him you expect he will move swiftly to
ensure that Ontario obtains 100% of its grid-supplied electricity from
renewable sources by 2027 (please bcc me – thanks
).

 

3 hour action

 

If you’ve got a few hours to spare, help us deliver postcards to Liberal
Leader Michael Ignatieff’s constituents. Write/call me and I’ll set you up
with a map, etc.

 

angela at cleanairalliance.org

 

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The Canadian Nuclear Industry: Status and Prospects

Canada was one of the first countries to adopt nuclear energy. It is the
world’s largest supplier of natural uranium and a supplier of nuclear
technology and expertise. However, recent announcements such as the Ontario
government’s plans to postpone indefinitely the construction of two nuclear
reactors at its Darlington facility, and the federal government’s intention
to privatize Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the nuclear science and
engineering company, raise questions about nuclear energy in Canada.

This paper provides an analysis of the future of nuclear energy in Canada
and the likely parameters of any revival.

http://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/Nuclear_Energy_WP08.pdf

 

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Why Harper needs a nuclear deal with India 


The future of Canada's industry depends on accords with Asian giants

The negotiations are all part of a larger geopolitical game, in which the
developed nations seek to exploit the economic opportunities of both rising
Asian giants (India and China).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/why-harper-needs-a-nuclear-deal
-with-india/article1360161/ 

 

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Don’t Nuke the Climate

 

The French Antinuclear Network (Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire") has launched a
campaign called "Don't nuke the climate!", focused on the Copenhagen climate
summit. 

 

Their goal is to prevent nuclear power from being labeled as
"climate-friendly" and included in the new agreement by lobbying and
gathering signatures from people all over the world.

About 310 organizations and 23,000 individuals have already signed on around
the world. Sign on now!

 

http://www.dont-nuke-the-climate.org/index.php?lang=en 

 

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Toshiba tells San Antonio its new twin $13 billion nukes will cost $4
billion more!

The city balks. This looks like a job for clean energy.

One of the very first new nuclear power plants proposed to be built in the
U.S. in over 30 years just hit a brick wall.  It’s the same brick wall —
absurdly high cost — being hit around the world 

http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/28/toshiba-san-antonio-nuclear-power-plan
t-expensive-cost/

 

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Global Fissile Material Report 2009: The Path to Nuclear Disarmament

 

The report charts some of the key technical and policy steps for securing
verifiable world-wide nuclear disarmament and eliminating the world's huge
stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, the key materials for
making nuclear weapons.

 

There are about 500 tons of separated plutonium, divided almost equally
between weapon and civilian stocks, but it is all weapon-usable. The global
stockpiles of plutonium and highly enriched uranium together are sufficient
for over one hundred thousand nuclear weapons. 

 

Of particular interest is Chapter 8, entitled "Nuclear Power and Nuclear
Disarmament”.  It makes it crystal clear that a world without nuclear
weapons would be extremely difficult to maintain without a complete
phase-out of civilian nuclear power.

 

It is available on line at:
www.fissilematerials.org/ipfm/site_down/gfmr09.pdf 

 

 

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<http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/07/david-frum-conservatives-heart-nuke-p
ower/>


 
<http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/07/david-frum-conservatives-heart-nuke-p
ower/> David Frum says “Conservatives Heart Nuke Power.” Too bad they don’t
“brain” it.

 

I always thought it was conservatives who accused progressives of being
driven by their heart and not their brain.  A painfully uninformed David
Frum wades into the debate over nuclear power with a post headlined,
“Conservatives Heart Nuke Power”.

 

http://climateprogress.org/2009/11/07/david-frum-conservatives-heart-nuke-po
wer/ 

 

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Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis
By Al Gore
Bloomsbury, 416 pages

For those who felt that former US vice-president and Nobel Peace
Prize-winner Al Gore left a few questions unanswered in An Inconvenient
Truth, his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,
offers full redress. Many of Gore's ideas are inevitably familiar, but the
clarity of his argument and the fissile power of his analysis combine to
elevate Our Choice into the top-ranking environmental books of our time.

 

Pillaging the public purse to subsidise dangerous and uneconomic nuclear
power stations makes no sense either when there are commercially available
technologies capable of producing clean power immediately.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8f0d2518-ca62-11de-a3a3-00144feabdc0.html 

 

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Nuclear power is a false solution to climate change

Nuclear power cannot contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions because
it is too expensive, too dangerous, takes too long and diverts scarce
capital that could provide real solutions like renewables and energy
efficiency.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20091106/GPG0706/911060552/1269/
GPG06 

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Spain reaches new wind record: 45.1% of Spain’s total electricity demand


Wind energy in Spain reached a new record last night, providing at its peak
45.1% of Spain’s total electricity demand – 2.1% greater than the previous
record set in November last year. 

The surge in wind power last night triggered water pumping stations which
transport water into reservoirs. This store of water will then be released
over the day generating electricity via water turbines at times of peak
demand.

The Spanish Wind Energy Association said the sustained peak in wind powered
electricity production proves that “wind energy is no longer marginal”. By
2020 Spain is expected to double its wind-power producing capacity from the
current level of 16 gigawatts to 40 GW.

 

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=2148 

 

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Britain seeks to expand nuclear energy

10 new plants planned as nation looks for ways to cut emissions

Ten nuclear power stations are to be built in Britain at a cost of up to £50
billion as the Government tries to prevent the threat of regular power cuts
by the middle of the coming decade. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6910307.ece

 

The British government
<http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn130/pn130.aspx> unveiled plans
Monday to launch one of the world's most ambitious expansions of
nuclear-power capacity, calling for the construction of 10 plants to help
meet surging energy demands in the era of global warming.

 

http://www.earth-stream.com/outpage.php?s=18
<http://www.earth-stream.com/outpage.php?s=18&id=215331> &id=215331

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6532905/Ten-new-nuclear-
power-stations-given-go-ahead.html 

 

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<http://priceofoil.org/2009/11/11/the-%e2%80%9ccorporate-killer%e2%80%9d-tha
t-is-nuclear-power/> The “Corporate Killer” that is Nuclear Power


 

At the end of the day energy comes down to economics.

 

http://priceofoil.org/2009/11/11/the-%E2%80%9Ccorporate-killer%E2%80%9D-that
-is-nuclear-power/

https://www.citigroupgeo.com/pdf/SEU27102.pdf

 

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Heat/power combination packs a punch

We can double the efficiency of our current electrical system with a
technology that's practical, proven, readily available, inexpensive and
technologically simple. 

Conventional power plants, whether coal, gas or nuclear, vent waste heat
into the atmosphere. Two-thirds of the fuel's energy is wasted as heat.
Natural gas-fired power plants only achieve 36% efficiency while for nuclear
reactors in Ontario, it's only 33%. 

By contrast, combined heat and power (CHP) -- also known as co-generation or
co-gen-- uses the waste heat for heating water and nearby buildings. This
more than doubles the efficiency to 75% to 90%, depending on the co-gen
plant. Using "waste" heat, CHP achieves 200% to 250% higher efficiency in
burning fuel than centralized power plants. 

 <http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2217640>
http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2217640

 

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Zero Nuclear Weapons

 

Public Forum

Fri. November 13 and Sat. Nov. 14

Toronto City Hall, Queen and Bay

 

The purpose of the forum is to help citizens understand the urgent need to
push for the abolition of nuclear weapons, in light of the hopeful climate
and the means for achieving it.

Sponsored by: the  <http://www.pugwashgroup.ca/> Canadian Pugwash Group,
<http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/> Science for Peace,  <http://pgs.ca/>
Physicians for Global Survival, and  <http://www.vowpeace.org/> Canadian
Voice of Women for Peace.

 

Forum website here: http://zeronuclearweapons.com/

 

Forum agenda here: http://zeronuclearweapons.com/agenda.html 

 

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Climate Justice Now!

 

Thur. Nov. 19, 7:00 pm

William Doo Auditorium, New College, 45 Willcocks Street, University of
Toronto

Free.

 

In a few weeks, international negotiations on climate change will begin in
Copenhagen, Denmark. An international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol
is being hammered out by leaders and negotiators from both the Global South
and Global North. Canada will go to Copenhagen with no domestic plan of
action. To date, Canada has performed badly on the international stage,
obstructing the negotiations. We demand action! 

 

Join youth and community members to discuss climate justice, to talk about
responding to the climate crisis, to hear from individuals and organizations
working on social justice concerns that are intimately connected to climate
justice. Stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities who are engaged in
the climate justice fight in the context of the Tar Sands Development; hear
migrant justice activists talk about climate refugees in the context of the
systemic dismantling of the refugee system and the increasingly exclusionary
Canadian immigration systems; watch a short film and hear from speakers
about the serious concerns climate change brings to the Caribbean.

 

Presented by the Caribbean Studies Students Union (CARSSU). Supported by
UTERN, among other organizations.

For more info or to suppport: climatejusticetoronto at gmail.com
http://tinyurl.com/climatejusticenow

 

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Community Power 2009

Community Power - It’s everybody’s business now!

 

 <http://www.cpconference.ca/Page.asp?PageID=924&SiteNodeID=247> The 1st
Annual OSEA Community Power Conference 2009, November 15-16, Metro Toronto
Convention Centre, South Building, Toronto

Come and celebrate the success of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act;
discuss the hottest topics from Micro-FIT and Feed-in Tariffs, to financing
models, the latest technology and local and international case studies. 

 

 <http://www.cpconference.ca/Page.asp?PageID=751&SiteNodeID=247>
http://www.cpconference.ca/Page.asp?PageID=751&SiteNodeID=247

 

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Volunteer with the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

 

Hankering to rid the province of our nuke plants once and for all? Find out
more:

 

Thur. Nov. 26, 6 – 7 p.m.

519 Church St. Community Centre (at Wellesley)

 

For more info: angela at cleanairalliance.org

Ontariosgreenfuture.ca

 

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Canadian Department for Peace – with Rob Acheson 

 

Thursday November 19th, 6:00 pm

Transformative Learning Centre/OISE, 252 Bloor St. West - 7th floor Peace
Lounge, Toronto

 

A Department of Peace would develop a coordinated and coherent paradigm for
a sustainable peace across all government departments. The Minister would
advance an agenda for a new architecture of peace by supporting and
establishing activities that promote a culture of peace and assertive
nonviolence in Canada and the world.

 

Info: info at worldmarch.ca / tlcentre at oise.utoronto.ca / www.worldmarch.ca /
www.departmentofpeace.ca

 

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Pajama Walk for Peace and Nonviolence

 

Saturday November 21st, 12:00 noon, meet at Yonge and Bloor, Toronto

 

More than 23,000 nuclear weapons worldwide threaten all Life on earth. 1 in
6 people face malnutrition everyday. And military spending is higher than
ever. It's...

TIME TO WAKE UP!

 

*March in your pajamas!

*Bring alarm clocks, bells, whistles, pots and pans, banners.

*Walk to the Peace Garden, Nathan Phillips Square.

 

A part of Canada's World March Days.

Info: info at worldmarch.ca / http://www.worldmarch.ca/ 

 

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Angela Bischoff

Outreach Director

Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Tel: 416 926 1907 x 246

625 Church Street, #402

Toronto, ON M4Y 2G1

angela at cleanairalliance.org

www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca

www.cleanairalliance.org 

 <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48852021264&ref=ts> Our Facebook
Group

 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/petition.php> Sign Our Petition

 <http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/nonukesnews.php> No Nukes News

 

 

 

 

 

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