A smiling Brian Jean, Alberta’s energy minister, posted photos on social media yesterday of his visit last week “to check out the future home of Canada’s first grid-scale small modular reactor.” Mr. Jean with what looks like a model of a nuclear reactor’s cooling rods in his hands and a
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Things Are Good: Nuclear Weapon Ban Signed at UN
Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to humanity. If they are used in violence it is likely that the planet would enter a period of nuclear winter – meaning that if you don’t die in the initial waves of explosions you’ll die from starvation. Not a good thing to think
Continue readingThings Are Good: Former Nuclear Disaster Site Could Become Solar Plant
One of the worst energy disaster in human history was the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It has left a giant chunk of land around Pripyat uninhabitable to humans (although the rest of nature has been thriving because humans aren’t there), now the Ukrainian government wants to reuse the land for a new source of electricity. […]
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Continue readingThings Are Good: Renewable Energy Capacity Comparable to Nuclear
The future is looking better and better for renewable energy production and recently the capacity for renewable energy is comparable to nuclear. Nuclear energy saw great progress and governmental support to get it where it is today; without such extensive help renewable energy production is now catching up. Seeing the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fukushima residents unsure of return to no-go zone
By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press TOMIOKA, Japan – Whenever Kazuhiro Onuki goes home, to his real home that is, the 66-year-old former librarian dons protective gear from head to toe and hangs a dosimeter around his neck. Grass grows wild in the backyard. The ceiling leaks. Thieves have ransacked the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Chilliwack residents unmask hazardous waste plant flaws
Chilliwack, BC on the banks of the Fraser River (Photo: Straight.com). Read this March 3 article in the Globe and Mail about a notice of application filed with the BC Supreme Court challenging the zoning bylaw of Aevitas Inc.’s plans to build a hazardous waste plant neighbouring the Fraser River:
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Will thorium save us from climate change?
As knowledge about climate change increases, so does demand for clean energy. Technologies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal and biofuels, along with energy-grid designs that will help us take advantage of renewables, are part of the equation, as is conservation. But many argue that, despite Fukushima and other disasters,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: David Suzuki: Citizens asked to help with Fukushima radiation research
An Internet search turns up an astounding number of pages about radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown that followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. But it’s difficult to find credible information. One reason is that government monitoring of radiation and its effects on fish stocks
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Researchers tackle fracking radiation
Wastewater from fracking can contain high levels of radiation (photo: J Henry Fair) by Ramit Plushnick-Masti, The Associated Press HOUSTON – Researchers believe they have found an unlikely way to decrease the radioactivity of some hydraulic fracturing wastewater: Mix it with the hazardous drainage from mining operations. The wastewater is created
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fukushima water decontamination system breaks down
Tanks containing radioactive water at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant (Issei Kato / Reuters) Read this Jan. 9 story from RT.com, reporting on the failure of the water decontamination system at Japan’s badly-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company)
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: David Suzuki: Fukushima the most terrifying situation imaginable
A video of Dr. David Suzuki’s comments at a recent University Alberta event is going viral, elevating concerns raised by independent media outlets like The Common Sense Canadian surrounding the dire, ongoing risks posed by Japan’s badly-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant. In the short video from October 31, posted by Aaron
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nuclear plant spills chemicals into Bay of Fundy
New Brunswick’s Point Lepreau nuclear plant LEPREAU, N.B. – NB Power says the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant recently released water containing low levels of a chemical used in its steam generators into the Bay of Fundy. The provincial Crown utility says the release of hydrazine occurred Sunday from a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Japan to remove perilous Fukushima nuclear fuel rods
1,500 spent fuel rods remain precariously perched atop the badly damaged Fukushima Reactor 4 TOKYO – Japanese regulators on Wednesday gave final approval for removing fuel rods from an uncontained cooling pool at a damaged reactor building considered the highest risk at a crippled nuclear plant. Removal of fuel rods
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Ex-Japanese PM calls for end to nuclear power following Fukushima
Naoto Kan testifying at a Japanese hearing to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan (2010-2011) addresses the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis which happened on his watch. While his decision to continue propping up the grossly negligent Tokyo Electric Power Company is disappointing, his bold vision for an
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Despite Fukushima radiation, scientists say West Coast fish is safe
Following Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, fear spread about risks of leaked radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant – for the health of those living in or near Fukushima or involved in cleanup efforts, and for the planet and the potential impacts on our complex marine food
Continue readingbastard.logic: The Atomic Road To Damascus (With a Detour Through Goldsboro)
Hey, remember when the US almost detonated an atomic bomb (260 times more powerful than either Fat Man or Little Boy) over North Carolina? Good times: The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was
Continue readingbastard.logic: The Atomic Road To Damascus (With a Detour Through Goldsboro)
Hey, remember when the US almost detonated an atomic bomb (260 times more powerful than either Fat Man or Little Boy) over North Carolina? Good times: The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Wiki-immortality!
My August Canadian EV car sales stats update went up recently. Which was cool. Cooler still, I had a chance to wax poetic about sustainability, and my new-found optimism that we’ll avoid the worst of our dystopian horrors. I was invited to be a guest lecturer for an engineering course
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Japan’s Fukushima radiation crisis: a Good News/Bad News story
Fukushima’s crippled Reactor 4, which contains 1,500 precariously-perched, radioactive fuel rods Addiction experts say the first step toward recovery is recognizing you have a problem. In that sense, perhaps we’re finally making some progress on what may be the greatest single threat humanity has ever faced: the nuclear catastrophe at
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Say sayonara to seafood – the oceans are no longer safe to eat from in the wake of Fukushima
It looks like sushi time is over – seafood is no longer safe to eat after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Fukushima continues to dump 300-400 tons of radioactive contaminated water into the Pacific every hour. Japanese experts estimate Fukushima’s fallout at 20-30 times as high as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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