An idea so dumb, it’s radioactive
Work in Progress, by Ivan Morgan
In what can only be described as a super slow news day a local media outlet (I hesitate to call them a news organization as they mostly only tell stories about minority groups) thought it wise to give a spokesperson from the Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) some attention so he could recommend our province look at the prospect of nuclear power to generate electricity.
It made me go nuclear!
First of all – no disrespect to the journalist who wrote this piece. Given the silly things that media organization churns out daily, this was a well researched, well written story. The kind they used to write.
If the plan was to make old NL Hydro skeptics like me go well, nuclear, mission accomplished.
Nuclear power? Let alone what anyone who’s watched The Simpsons would think (Homer worked at a nuclear power plant), we are talking Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. This is the hydro company that can’t get hydro right, miring the next few generations of people who live here in debt paying off a plant (Muskrat Falls) that doesn’t work, as well as paying off other projects needed to supply power because of Muskrat Falls’ shortcomings.
Nuclear power? Can you even imagine this crowd handling nuclear power? The story rightly notes that under the province’s legislation, planning for nuclear power is forbidden. Yet the article also notes NL Hydro did consider it anyway. No surprise there. That legislation says all manner of stuff that was ignored by NL Hydro. Don’t take my word for it – go read the section in The Electrical Power Control Act called Power Policy (for the three of you who really care, send me an e-mail and I will send you the link). It’s enough to make you weep.
The CNA spokesdude’s argument is nuclear power is cheap, reliable, and, he adds, relatively safe. I noted he glossed over the radioactive issue. Again, given that a corporation with the word hydro in its name can’t get – wait for it – hydro power working, do we think allowing them to try radioactive stuff is a good idea?
There is an argument for nuclear power. Half of the population lives on the Avalon peninsula, which gets its power over the isthmus, which can be problematic in harsh weather. Problematic in a freezing in the dark kind of way.
Back in the day, they built a power plant in Holyrood to address that problem. That plant was once viewed as wonderful. Now it’s viewed as ancient and environmentally dirty – when it works. Muskrat Falls was sold to us as a fix for that. It isn’t. If lines go down on the isthmus we could freeze for days or weeks in the dark. If the Muskrat Falls lines go down, it could even be longer.
Nuclear power, the argument goes, could be a way of addressing the issue of emergency power for half the province’s population.
Instead of belching black smoke into the air we would have to deal with spent nuclear waste. Dangerous? If you google it there’s no end of government websites telling you not to worry yourself about it. Safe as houses. Hmmmm…
Just to belabour the point, there’s a hydro plant in Petty Harbour built in 1898 which still works, so we know the technology is sound when built properly.
This CNA fellow touts nuclear power as the answer to all our problems. I don’t blame him, he’s trying to make a living. I don’t blame the journalist for writing a substantive (if a bit silly) story. She too has to make a living.
Here’s the thing. The nuclear option would not solve the real problem we have, which is with the Crown corporation we are supposed to own; the one which has been busy trying to bankrupt us for the last 15 years. It might solve their problems, but not ours.
NL Hydro was created to produce cheap reliable power for us all. It has done exactly the opposite.
It makes my stomach hurt.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com