The Green Party of Saskatchewan is opposed to all new nuclear development in the province. It regards government funding of Hitachi’s “small reactor” programme and of a “Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation” as a dangerous and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money.86% opposition to nuclear waste disposal and storage, only 12% support
Deputy Leader Mark Bigland-Pritchard noted: “In the wake of the still continuing Fukushima Daiichi disaster, it is amazing that anyone is still taking the nuclear option seriously. Instead of listening to the nuclear PR men, we should recognize that it is an industry with no long-term future except for the need to manage its highly-radioactive, highly-toxic and very long-lived wastes. Besides the risks posed to human health and ecosystems, it is also very expensive – 20 cents per kilowatt-hour according to the quote given by AECL in Ontario two years ago. And it is irresponsible to generate nuclear waste when nobody has secure knowledge as to how to store it safely.”
In 2009, the Government of Saskatchewan initiated a consultation process, chaired by well-respected former public servant Dan Perrins, on the findings of the Uranium Development Partnership, a nuclear industry panel convened by the government. The results of that consultation process were:
- 70% opposition to expansion of uranium exploration and mining, only 25% support
- 70% opposition to uranium upgrading, only 24% support
- 42% opposition to nuclear research, a further 19% specifying support only for medical isotope research, only 32% general support.
- 88% opposition to the UDP’s overall strategy, only 12% support.
- 93% considered nuclear development a net cost, only 6% a net benefit
- 98% support for more development of “alternative” (i.e. renewable) energy technologies, only 1%opposition
At the time, the Saskatchewan Party government described this overwhelming signal of opposition from the public as an “orange light”. Bigland-Pritchard’s response: “No means no. It doesn’t mean maybe and it doesn’t mean yes in a few years time.”CCNI Business Framework, the main task of this body is to “foster investment in nuclear research, development and training in the nuclear sector…. The province expects the CCNI to focus on value-added nuclear technologies” – not (as has been widely suggested) the production of medical isotopes. “Value-added” appears to be code for so-called “4th generation” reactors such as fast breeders, and the dangerous, costly and weapons-proliferation-prone reprocessing technology on which they would depend.
In March this year, the government announced $30 million taxpayer funding for a new, largely industry managed and directed Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation (CCNI) at the University of Saskatchewan. According to the
Despite 60 years of development in seven countries, no commercially-viable fast breeder reactor has ever been developed, and several prototypes have been put out of action by serious accidents.
In August this year, the government announced a memorandum of understanding with Hitachi Canada to work on the development of “small” nuclear reactors – whose mostly likely application would be in expanding the climate-threatening operations in the Alberta and Saskatchewan tarsands.
According to Bigland-Pritchard, “The Saskatchewan Party has clearly decided to ignore public opinion. There was a clear message of opposition to non-medical nuclear research in the 2009 consultation process, and an even clearer message of opposition to the sort of reactor development which is being planned both with Hitachi and under the pretext of U of S research. The Sask Party are using the backdoor route of the U of S to support special interests against the public will.”
A Green government would cut off such tied funding, but would restore general funding to enable the U of S to become once again a place where knowledge and understanding are prized above commercial interests.
The Green Party would legislate against nuclear waste dumping and transportation in Saskatchewan, and would pursue energy strategies to shift rapidly away from fossil fuels to safe clean renewable sources such as solar, wind and forestry residue.
Greens still support medical isotope production, but generated in particle accelerators, not power reactors.
Contact: Mark Bigland-Pritchard 249 4101