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http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=474116&catname=Letters%20to%20the%20Editor&classif"
Saint Catharines Standard/Osprey Media:
Letter To Editor:
We need a profound shift in the way we think about energy
Letters to the Editor - Wednesday, April 04, 2007 Updated @ 9:46:08 AM
Re: Hamilton-Niagara among areas touted for burial of radioactive waste fuel, The Standard, March 26.
While cities and small communities in southern Ontario are reeling from the idea that nuclear waste could be coming to southern Ontario, Haldimand County continues to debate the possibility of a nuclear plant in Nanticoke.
This could create the very real possibility that it might become host to waste uranium fuel bundles, which are now stored temporarily at Canada's 22 nuclear reactor sites.
At a cost of about $24 billion, the waste (which remains dangerously radioactive for a million years or so) would be buried one kilometre deep in a rock mausoleum.
I cannot with any clear conscience support an industry that has unresolved waste management issues, leaving a legacy of thousands of years of radioactive waste. Even if there were no other concerns about large capital costs of building nuclear plants, no threats of terrorism, no questions of liability in case of a nuclear accident or leaks (who pays?), I would still question the wisdom of investing more tax dollars (estimated $48 billion or so) into an industry that would leave to future generations the problem of how to manage nuclear waste.
Everywhere, people are showing enthusiasm about energy savings, wind turbines, solar, geothermal, biomass, and decentralized energy generation. There is an energy revolution happening and people are talking about it like never before - children in schools, students in universities, parents and grandparents, nurses, teachers, farmers, homebuilders and engineers! We have an educated public that is ready to move into the 21st century with new sustainable solutions to our environmental problems.
A profound shift in the way we use and produce energy will make Ontario a healthier, safer, cleaner and more beautiful place to live, work and play. Are we up for the challenge, Ontario?
Janet Fraser
Concession 1 Road South
Cayuga, Ont.
