How unfortunate that journalists feel they *must* flaunt their ignorance.... Jaro ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id= c9dfae5a-c563-4590-ad98-101ae33b10fc Editorial My nuclear nightmare The provincial government should use the threat of terrorist attack on nuclear plants as a reason to close Gentilly-2 HENRY AUBIN The Gazette, February 22, 2005 It was troubling enough last week to see a Radio-Canada reporter waltz unchallenged into the inner sanctum of Quebec's mighty dams - able, if he had wished, to inflict mayhem on the province that would have made the 1998 ice storm seem a picnic. But the furor over that scoop has had the effect of overshadowing a later Rad-Can report that I found even more disturbing. In it, a reporter in a small plane flew to the Gentilly-2 nuclear plant, 150 kilometres east of Montreal. The plane cruised over Quebec's lone reactor at a height of just 1,000 feet. And then did it again and again before leaving after 20 minutes. There was no sign of a response on the ground. No police aircraft arrived from nearby Trois-Rivieres to investigate. No military aircraft. The radioactivity that an explosives-packed plane could unleash could have far graver consequences than any power shortage or flash flood resulting from a destroyed dam. Cancer and birth defects could proliferate across thousands of square kilometres downwind. Much of eastern Canada could be a No Man's Land for generations. Another reason the security problem at Gentilly is so much more serious than that of any dam is that it defies solution. Hydro-Quebec responded to the television report by promptly assigning 200 guards to its dams, thereby ending a political crisis that toppled the energy minister. But it has made few changes at Gentilly. A spokesperson for the crown corporation said yesterday that the armed, around-the-clock guards who were at the plant before the report are now making more patrols on the ground than before. That's it. Protection of the air space is still a joke. Yet authorities can't do much more. The only effective solution - flying a missile-equipped aircraft around the site 24/7 - is unaffordable. Still, there's a bright side to this reminder of Gentilly's hair-raising helplessness: The timing is excellent. It so happens that Hydro-Quebec is asking the Charest government for permission to prolong the life of the reactor, already 22 years old. The original plan calls for it to close in 2013, but Hydro wants to spend a cool $1.2 billion on changes that will let the plant to stay open until 2035. Quebec's environmental-review agency, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, held public hearings on the proposal before Christmas. It has yet to make a recommendation to the government. Radio-Canada's experiment should make it hard for the agency to ignore the matter of safety. My main nuclear worry as a Montrealer is not with Gentilly - which is downwind of the city. I'm more concerned over where the city's prevailing winds come from. That would be southern Ontario. Last year, an Ontario task forced headed by former federal finance minister John Manley said the province faced an electricity crisis unless it built five new nuclear plants, each with two reactors. Ontario already gets about half its electricity from 15 reactors at five plants. The McGuinty government has yet to make a decision on Manley's recommendation, but the problem that appears to be giving it pause is the possibility of cost overruns, not safety. Montreal, of course, is also downwind from much of the United States. The Bush administration is thinking of adding the equivalent of 50 new reactors to the country's 103 by 2020. As memories of the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl fade, nuclear energy is discreetly becoming a la mode. It's a way to perpetuate our energy gluttony without emitting greenhouse gases. What contradicts this squeaky-clean image is that no safe way exists to dispose of spent nuclear fuel; the strategy is like building a house without a toilet. Accidents and terrorism are the two things the nuclear proselytizers want the public to forget. One major industrialized country, Germany, has already renounced the nuclear path. It plans to scrap its plants by 2020. Quebec has a chance to beat it to the punch. In three weeks, the province's environmental-review agency will submit to the government its recommendation on Gentilly's post-2013 fate. Dismantling Gentilly would entail little deprivation for Quebecers - it supplies just three per cent of our electricity. But it would make eastern Canada safer and set an example for the world. haubin@thegazette.canwest.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.4.0 - Release Date: 2/22/2005
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