Pembroke Daily Observer
Éditorial - Mercredi, le 26 juillet 2006

Disponible en anglais seulement.

The facts have been gathered, the evidence is clear and several studies have confirmed there is a case for pursuing nuclear energy as a less-risky choice for power in Ontario.

But its critics continue to attack it while ignoring global warming, huge spikes in oil prices and the continuing demand by industry and residents for more electricity.

Nuclear power has been vilified for years, often unfairly, but Ontario is just the latest jurisdiction to take a new, fresh, hard look at the nuclear industry, as it did just recently, and concede it will (must) invest in a major way in refurbishing old plants and build new ones.

It is following in the steps of France, Britain, China (it will spend $50 billion US to quadruple its nuclear power output over the next 15 years), Finland and Japan who are looking at increased nuclear power.

In the U.S., several major companies are investigating building new nuclear plants as it becomes clear that alternative power sources- like coal are not the answer.

One example is Asia where they are building scores of major polluting coal plants to meet a huge demand for energy.

The New York Times said in a recent report "The increase in global warming from new coal plants in Asia and China will likely exceed that for all industrialized countries combined over the next 25 years, surpassing by five times the reduction in such emissions sought by the Kyoto Protocol."

It is true that the risk, not as high as it was in the past (see the Chernoble and Five Mile Island accidents) has been lowered and it should be noted that Chernoble was caused by a lack of informed maintenance and sheer incompetence.

Nuclear plant authorities today have made their reactors much safer as those of us who live near Chalk River know well and while storing nuclear waste is a problem, that too is being addressed.

In this day and age, it does not make common sense to rely on fossil fuels and while wind, solar and water power sound attractive, they are just not up to the job. Politically, environmentally and economically, we need nuclear power.