OTTAWA – Several MPs, including the Liberals’ Jenica Atwin, are sounding the alarm on nuclear energy just one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wants to see Canada pursue the technology to meet its climate goals.
MPs from all parties, except the Conservatives, appeared alongside experts Tuesday to warn against the use of “dirty and dangerous” nuclear energy. The MPs labelled the renewed interest in nuclear a distraction from effective climate action and called on Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to require impact assessments for plans for small modular reactors.
“New nuclear is already far more expensive than proven renewable energy sources like wind and solar,” said Susan O’Donnell, a professor and a member of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick. “And there is no guarantee that these nuclear experiments will ever generate electricity safely and affordably.”
The MPs — who included Green party co-leader Elizabeth May, NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice and Bloc Québécois Mario Simard — recognized Canada’s need to improve its energy grid, but insisted there were safer ways to proceed, especially at a time when there is an increased threat of nuclear war.
The anti-nuclear group said they invited the Conservative’s natural resources critic, but she declined the invitation.
Atwin is the only Liberal to publicly break ranks so far, but said she has had conversations with colleagues who appear to be “open-minded” to learning more about her concerns. Atwin was first elected in 2019 as a Green MP, but crossed the floor to join the Liberals and was re-elected in 2021 as a Liberal.
Speaking in front of university students, on Monday, Trudeau said Canada is going to need significant amounts of carbon-free power in the decades to come and nuclear will have to be part of that.
“As we look at what the baseload energy requirements are gonna be needed by Canada over the coming decades, especially as we continue to draw in global giants like Volkswagen who choose Canada partially because we have a clean energy mix to offer to power. We’re gonna need a lot more energy,” he said. “We’re gonna have to be doing much more nuclear.”
We don't need nuclear power.
Susan O'Donnell, professor and member of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick
O’Donnell said the government’s recent support for small modular reactors ignores significant environmental concerns as well as potential impacts on Indigenous communities.
“We don’t need nuclear power,” O’Donnell said, suggesting the use of renewable sources of energy instead.
These investments would require billions in public funds “because private sector money isn’t rolling to them,” O’Donnell added.
But Guilbeault told reporters Tuesday that while he has not supported nuclear energy in the past, experts with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency have said the technology may be necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius.
John Gorman, the president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, said while he welcomed increased debate over the future of nuclear energy production, the concerns outlined by anti-nuclear activists were misleading.
Citing data on death rates per unit of electricity production, Gorman said nuclear energy was on par with renewables in terms of safety.
He added he wasn’t concerned about nuclear energy losing support in the government, even if some MPs are speaking against it.
“The more that people understand the real facts behind nuclear, the more they realize that it is a safe, cost-effective, clean source of electricity generation that’s needed for a net-zero future,” he said.
Post a Comment