I agree — it isn’t safe. This should not be an option for Canada.
What would nuclear power look like for the Prairies?
What would nuclear power look like for the Prairies?
There are a lot of options in energy for Canada — hydro, wind, solar, biomass, natural gas, geothermal … the list goes on.
As we work to decarbonize our electricity sources, there is growing interest in nuclear power.
Nuclear power has a long history in Canada, with the first plant, the Nuclear Power Demonstration Reactor in Rolphton, Ont., going online in the early 1960s.
Today, larger nuclear generating stations in Ontario and New Brunswick supply about 15 per cent of Canada’s electricity.
Canada’s nuclear power plants use nuclear fission. Atoms from a uranium fuel are split apart, releasing energy in the form of heat and radiation. The heat is used to create steam from water. The steam then spins a turbine, creating electricity.
Spent fuel — radioactive waste — must be stored securely for thousands of years. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/what-would-nuclear-power-look-like-for-the-prairies-1.6824632|
(Note from Steve) Herein lies my problem with this technology. The radioactive waste is dangerous. Canadian and U.S. authorities have both cut back radiation reporting after detecting only minuscule increases following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011, despite ongoing clean-up efforts in Japan.
An article on the CBC website says, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/canada-and-u-s-cut-back-radiation-reporting-1.1114828 “Numerous radioactive particles have been detected in milk, water and air tests nationwide since the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck the power plant on March 11, but agency officials said Friday the levels were so minuscule they were not harmful to public health.”
Apparently they found traces of Cesium 134 and Cesium 137 — too small to worry about.
‘Cept it bio-accumulates in the soft tissues of your body, and its stored. If you were exposed to it often enough, it can cause cancer)
#nuclear #radiation #cancer #RadioactiveWaste #mistake #cdnpoli
What’s left of Scotch Creek, B.C. after wildfire?
What’s left of Scotch Creek, B.C. after wildfire?
Residents of more than 3,500 properties in B.C.’s Shuswap region had to evacuate on Friday and Saturday as “extreme fire behaviour” entered the area, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) and local emergency officials.
On Saturday, the BCWS confirmed that two fast-moving wildfires burned down blocks of homes, stores and buildings in multiple communities in the Shuswap region.
Among those evacuated were Jordon Byerley, a local firefighter, his daughter Camilla and son Brixton, the children’s aunt, and their two puppies. The group, along with others, took a boat Saturday to the town of Celista on the north shore of Shuswap Lake.
CBC News photographer Ben Nelms traveled with them to witness the destruction. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/images-wildfires-shuswap-2023-1.6941780|
‘A great feeling’: Okanagan wildfire battle has turned a corner, fire chiefs say
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In B.C.’s bone-dry northeast, what happens when wildfires and fracking collide? | The Narwhal
In B.C.’s bone-dry northeast, what happens when wildfires and fracking collide? | The Narwhal: Takaro, professor emeritus and former
associate dean for research in Simon Fraser University’s health sciences
faculty, is trying to determine what happens if a wildfire burns
through a fracking operation. Fracking releases methane mixed with other
polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other toxicants like mercury, sulfur
dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, he pointed out. “Burning that is not a
good idea. Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic. Some of them are
also reproductive toxicants.”
“Depending on the stage of the fracking,
there will be gas on site. There will be fracking materials stored in
tanks. And there will be a network of piping and the well itself. So
there’s plenty of material there that you would not want to have
released into the atmosphere.”
Burning produces particulate matter
containing its own complex mix of toxicants, which can include
polyaromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, as well as nitrogen oxides,
sulfur dioxide and the particles themselves, which are harmful. “This is
a toxic mix, concentrated in a generally rural area, surrounded by
forests,” Takaro said. “It’s not hard to conceive of an out of control
wildfire ripping through one of these facilities.”