The Council of Canadians Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter is a member group in Safe and Green Energy (SAGE). This group will be intervening in the upcoming hearings on the building of two new nuclear reactors on the north shore of Lake Ontario near Clarington (about 22 kilometres from Peterborough).
The Ontario government chose the Darlington nuclear plant as the site of two new nuclear reactors and Ontario Power Generation would operate the new facility. NewsDurhamRegion.com reports that, “The environmental assessment to build new nuclear reactors on the site next to the existing Darlington nuclear station was submitted in September 2010. Since then, the federal government has been working through the review process with a three-person review committee appointed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. …’If the federal government accepts their findings, the panel will be in a position to issue a licence to prepare the site,’ said Albert Sweetnam, executive vice-president of the Darlington New Nuclear Project.”
Another NewsDurhamRegion article reports that, “The (Joint Review Panel) public hearing (for the Darlington nuclear power project) has been scheduled to begin March 21 and is expected to take approximately three weeks. ‘This will be one of the largest Joint Review Panel (hearings) in North America,’ said Clarington CAO Franklin Wu. The hearing will be held at Hope Fellowship Church, 1685 Bloor Street in Courtice. Topics that will be addressed over the course of the hearing include emissions, human health, land use, aquatic biota and habitat, and the management of conventional and nuclear waste. …The public hearing will give interested residents an opportunity to hear about the project and provide their views to the Joint Review Panel.”
“The licence to prepare the site could be issued before the end of 2011.”
The Council of Canadians rejects nuclear power because it poses an unacceptable risk to people and the environment. It is neither clean, safe, peaceful, nor economic. We are opposed to the further expansion of nuclear power in our country. Faced with climate change and diminishing energy resources globally, we recognize the need for a just transition away from a fossil fuel and nuclear dependent society, while ensuring Canadians access to basic energy needs, to sustainable, publicly funded and publicly delivered energy alternatives that benefit both workers and their communities. We support renewable, non-invasive energy sources (such as solar and wind power), energy efficiency and conservation.
The news reports are at http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/170272 and http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/169928.
More on SAGE at http://www.gosage.net/Site/About_SAGE.html.
