Nuclear Free Alberta

What's it like to live in rural Ontario with Bruce Power as your neighbour? After the viewing My Nuclear Neighbour on CBC's The Nature of Things, Emily wrote a letter to the residents of the Peace River region detailing the social and economic impact Bruce Power's presence on her rural community. She discusses the increasing poverty and lack of services for locals as retailers choose to serve the BP employees, many of whom are transplants to the area. It's a unique window into the experiences of living in a company town and urges the people of Peace River to think twice about allowing a nuclear reactor in their town.

Resistance to Nuclear Expansion into Northern Alberta is alive and well.

From a recent brochure: "The farmers living closest to the proposed

reactor site in Weberville banded together as WAC (Weberville Area Connection), out of concern for their safety and to educate themselves. They had no choice. Our governments, our scientists and the medical community abandoned them.None of the three levels of government held a single public meeting on nuclear power in the past three years. They’ve provided no educational material or qualified speakers. No one from academia or the scientific community came to explain the impacts and dangers we face except those WE paid for. Health and social experts have been equally silent.Mel Knight’s handling of the nuclear issue for the past two years has been shameful. He emasculated the credibility of his Expert Nuclear Panel by failing to appoint any health or environmental experts while including a Director of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The panel’s subsequent report is biased, incomplete and fraudulent.The “consultation” process was equally dubious. Mel Knight allowed the nuclear project to go forward after dismissing the negative results of the first survey of 3600 people, in favour of the marginally more positive results of 1,024 people in a random telephone survey. It’s also disturbing that no media was allowed into any part of the consultation process."For more information, please contact: Pat McNamara entwork@hotmail.com

or Brent Reese at 780-836-3796

Although this article is almost a year old, it’s a piece of news I had not been aware of until now.

Nuclear power plant meets with disapproval of chiefs Alberta Sweetgrass, May 2009 by Catherine McLaughlin, Peace River

Bruce Power Alberta has given its nod to Whitemud over Lac Cardinal for the location of its proposed nuclear plant in the Peace country. Both locations fall within the territory of the Duncan First Nation and potentially affect lands and resources of other nations such as the Lubicon and downstream communities such as the Little Red River Cree Nation. The location that has been selected is 30 km north of the town of Peace River on the west bank of the Peace river.

"Our nation is not opposed to sustainable resource development. We attempt to work with governments, industry and our neighbours to understand the facts and potential risks of what is being proposed," said Chief Don Testawich of Duncan's First Nation.

Testawich was one of 40 Alberta Assembly of treaty chiefs who met in Grande Prairie in 2007 and voted unanimously to oppose the plant when word first came out of the proposed construction.

"The unanimous vote by Alberta chiefs against nuclear power is very significant," said Brenda Brochu, president of the Peace River Environmental Society. "I think the chiefs in Alberta have had the foresight to look beyond temporary economic development at the long term implications of nuclear power and I really commend them for that. I think it's wonderful."

The growing recession is attracting some people with the lure of the high paying jobs they are told will accompany a nuclear power plant. They see it as a means to encourage more young people to remain in the region. Brochu and the Environmental Society acknowledge this concern but point out that focusing on environmentally friendly energy and industries would be a better way to bring money and jobs to the area.