I should like to congratulate Mick Hick on his excellent Viewpoint article: "How safe is nuclear energy?" (Cobourg Daily Star, October 13, 2006). It is heartening to see this member of your Community Editorial Board continue to speak out against the irrational fears that stop us from pursuing the one course which might save this planet.
Mr. Hick presents a useful quote from the 2006 book The Revenge of Gaia, whose author, British scientist James Lovelock (creator of the Gaia theory), is an honorary member of our newly formed Canadian branch of the international organization: Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy.
A few years ago Dr. Lovelock was arguing: "civilisation is in imminent danger and has to use nuclear -- the one safe, available, energy source -- now or suffer the pain soon to be inflicted by our outraged planet".
To be fair, one must point out that, in The Revenge of Gaia, Dr. Lovelock has become more pessimistic, arguing that we must now "prepare for the worst and assume that we have already passed the threshold" and that near-intolerable climate changes, sea level rise, and storms of unprecedented severity "will be with us within no more than a few decades".
Others may believe the situation is critical, but not yet quite as inevitably catastrophic as Lovelock considers it. Who knows?
But until it is conclusively proven there is no hope, we all surely have a duty to our children and grandchildren to do whatever we can to prevent this threatening catastrophe. One of the essential steps is stopping greenhouse gas emissions now. Not, say, a 10-per-cent reduction 10 years from now, but 100-per-cent cessation now! That means electrifying our railways and increasing electrified urban transit.
The only possible source of sufficient energy to accomplish this (even with the most aggressive conservation programs) and to replace oil (which the world is rapidly running out of anyway) is nuclear generation.
Mr. Hick rightly refers to ultimate long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel in vaults deep in the Canadian Shield. Late last year the NWMO (Nuclear Waste Management Organization) issued its final report recommending (ultimately) this deep geological repository -- but, would you believe, this is the fifth report since 1978 making the same recommendation! How many times do we have to study the same issue?
The fact is communications to the general public have not been as effective as we would all wish. But, the public has a responsibility to educate itself as well. How will we explain the mess we are leaving our children and grandchildren? We were just too busy to worry about it? Or we couldn't give up our Hummers?
Mr. Hick's articles are a call to wake up before it is too late. Thank you.
Rod Anderson, President, Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy (Canada) Inc. / Cobourg
This letter was published in the
Oct 23/06 issue of the
Cobourg Daily Star