Peace and Environment News* June 1995
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Peace and Environment News * June 1995 |
by Estelle Taylor
The Canadian government wants Canada to be the site for an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, and will make its bid to host the reactor at this month's G-7 meeting in Halifax.
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) would be built at the Darlington or Bruce nuclear plant sites in Ontario. The ITER is an international research project of the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Canada has been a minor partner in the European group.
The Campaign Against Nuclear Fusion opposes this project, for environmental, financial and energy policy reasons.
The Campaign says there are many environmental problems with fusion, which is the source of power in the sun. Fusion makes energy by joining light nuclei of elements such as tritium and deuterium. Fusion reactions use huge amounts of radioactive tritium as fuel.
A fusion reactor creates a large amount of high-energy neutron radiation, which causes structural materials in the reactor to become highly radioactive. In addition to posing operating difficulties and creating an occupational health hazard, this also creates radioactive waste disposal problems.
The Campaign says this $20 billion megaproject is too expensive. Though the project is mostly funded by international partners, Canada would also contribute a great deal of money. The Canadian government would spend $35 million a year for the ten-year construction period and $10 million a year for the twenty-year operating period. This amount is in addition to existing federal fusion research funding of about $30 million a year. Total government subsidies to the nuclear industry are about $200 million a year.
As well, Ontario Hydro expects to pay $100 million for radioactive waste management and $125 million to decommission the reactor when it becomes too radioactive to operate.
The reactor will not produce electricity: it's just a research project. But it will require huge amounts of electricity to operate. It's estimated the reactor will require 200 megawatts of power on a continuous basis, peaking at 1000 MW.
The Campaign says our public research and development funds should instead be spent on energy conservation and renewable energy sources—truly sustainable technologies that benefit consumers and the environment.
Europe and Japan are also competing for this reactor. The United States has not decided whether or not it will make a bid.
The final decision on which country will host the reactor will be announced at the 1996 G-7 meeting. Construction of the project is to begin in 1998.
For more information, contact the Nuclear Awareness Project (who are part of the Campaign) at Box 2331, Oshawa, ON, L1H 7V6, Tel/Fax 905-725-1565, web site:nucaware, or the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout in Ottawa at 789-3634. The group is asking people to write, postage-free, to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien or their Member of Parliament at House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6.
Converted July 7, 2000 - Lg
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