Friday, February 29, 2008

No Three-Eyed Fishes, Please

We just attended a very good lecture on nuclear power by Jim Harding, a Saskatchewan professor who has been speaking out about the hazards/costs of nuclear power and uranium mining for many years. This is something I've been concerned about since learning, about six months ago, that there are proposals for up to 13 nuclear sites in Alberta. Naturally, they would be located on large bodies of water for cooling purposes, which means you can kiss any lake or river selected for a reactor site goodbye. You'll never be fishing, swimming, or living/camping safely beside it ever again. Neither will any birds.
To date, there are proposals for building and running these facilities, but no proposals for disposing of all the shit that's going to be coming out of them. In fact, Harding suspects Alberta is being deliberately targeted as a good dump site - who cares about Peace River, after all?
This is something I absolutely do not want to see in this province, or any other. But especially not Alberta. We already have a major enviro-crisis going on with the tar sands, and lots of little Chernobyls dotting the prairies aren't going to help.

One thing I loved about the talk was Harding's attitude that this isn't a Them problem. Yes, the nuclear lobby is amoral and quite powerful. But we've helped create the climate for this kind of situation, and it is our responsibility to do our best for our provinces and for future generations. Every time a uranium-tipped missile lands in Iraq, a little part of it comes from Saskatchewan. And that's our problem.

5 comments:

tshsmom said...

Atta girl!
I don't care what anybody says, you can't transport or store nuclear waste safely.
We need alternative power sources, but this ain't it!
With all the prairie in Alberta, why aren't they discussing wind power?

The Zombieslayer said...

I agree with your mother. Nuclear power is not the way to go. There's no way to safely dispose it.

S.M. Elliott said...

No, there just isn't. I realize some folks wouldn't mind turning all of Alberta into a toxic dump zone and just forgetting about it, but I MIND!!

tweetey30 said...

They have alot of those here. The wind mills. they cost up the butt they are better than this other idea.. I tried to take a photo of the ones I saw when we went to Madison but they didnt come out real clear. They are just huge.

S.M. Elliott said...

Wind power would be good out here. It is costly, but surely not as bad as nuclear facilities and waste "disposal" (dumping). They're using more and more wind power in B.C. now, and it seems to be working out well for them. If even half of Alberta's farmers had just a small portion of their land devoted to wind power, that could be a major contribution to meeting our energy needs. God knows we've got enough wind!