NEI Nuclear Notes

In the Canadian province of Ontario, work is well underway to restart Units 1 and 2 at the Bruce A Nuclear Power Plant. Ed Willet, a freelance writer, recently toured the facility and came away impressed .

Details from the Globe and Mail .

In response to news that Energy Alberta plans to build a twin-CANDU plant, the London Free-Press (Ontario) had this to say: As concerns about global warming rise to fever pitch, a full-flung debate on the role of nuclear energy in reducing CO2 emissions -- and fears about safety -- is essential. You'd think the green movement, which led the charge to reduce CO2 emissions, would welcome such an opportunity. Instead, they've responded to an application to build a $6.2 billion nuclear power plant in northern Alberta with the usual booga-booga rhetoric that unfortunately clings to the development of nuclear energy in Canada. The half-truths and dubious scientific claims by these groups lead one to believe they do their research by watching the Simpsons. Ouch!

Details here .

From Maclean's : Stephen Harper would seem an unlikely pitchman for nuclear power. When the Prime Minister launches into his familiar spiel about Canada as an emerging "energy superpower," we all think we know what he's talking about - he's an Alberta MP, after all, and his father worked for Imperial Oil. Yet in a key speech last summer in London, his most gleeful boast was not about record oil profits, but about soaring uranium prices. "There aren't many hotter commodities, so to speak, in the resource markets these days," Harper joked to the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce crowd. Then, noting that Britain is among those countries poised to begin buying new reactors for the first time in decades, he added: "We'll hope you remember that Canada is not just a source of uranium; we also manufacture state-of-the-art CANDU reactor technology, and we're world leaders in safe management of fuel waste."