[All] my letter to Globe on nukes

[BLAINE GRAY]

While everyone is acutely aware of the risks involved with nuclear power, 
particularly in view of the Japanese situation, we all need to be reminded that 
there are very few other viable sources of electric power that don't also impose 
huge strains on our enviornment.

We have coal, oil, natural gas and water.  It's no news that fossil fuel sources 
of electricity and fuel are responsible for climate warming and contribute to 
illnesses for millions.  With the move to electric vehicles, we will be 
replacing fuel for cars with fuel for generators.

Significant improvements have been made with wind and solar but these 
technologies are not without risk.  Solar leaves behind particularly nasty waste 
and wind is questioned due to noise.

So we need to put the risks associated with each of these sources in 
perspective.  Our continually expanding need for energy (including these 
computers that we all use) must be satisfied somehow.  Nuclear power has had a 
reasonably good track record when compared with most of the other big 
sources; rather than dismissing it entirely, it might be more effective to 
support research into making it safer.

....Blaine Gray


 



________________________________
From: Eleanor Grant <eleanor7000 at gmail.com>
To: GREN2 <All at gren.ca>
Sent: Fri, March 18, 2011 12:23:30 AM
Subject: [All] my letter to Globe on nukes



To the editor
The Globe and Mail:

Suppose that every nuclear reactor in Ontario could be built and operated for 40 
years without a hitch and then be dismantled as planned.

Would that mean they are safe?

There are two KNOWN risks, which alone should make us afraid to build any more 
of the things.

One is that the cost is prohibitive.  We and our grandchildren will be paying 
for them forever, through either soaring hydro rates or soaring debt.  Unlike 
renewables, nukes have no payback time, only PAY MORE time.

The other known risk is that there is still no way to dispose of the waste.  To 
keep generating dangerous wastes that our strapped descendants will have to 
figure out how to dispose of, is both foolish and unconscionable.

Ontario should announce today a timetable for phasing out nuclear power, as it 
commendably did with coal.

Eleanor Grant
Waterloo, Ont.
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