erudyk_29
Active Member
With the ongoing climate crisis becoming more and more dire, the need for clean energy is bigger than ever. While renewable electricity sources like solar, wind and hydro have done a great job of expanding and even becoming significantly cheaper than traditional fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. However, they are not 100% reliable, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. Batteries and other storage mechanisms can help to ensure the lights stay on even when conditions aren't right for solar and wind, however battery technology is still a while off from being good enough to switch fully to solar and wind.
With this in mind it is clear that a new solution is needed to solve the energy crisis and help to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and reduce carbon emissions. That solution is increasingly being seen as nuclear power, and this is not a pie in the sky crazy idea, entire countries like France have been running almost entirely running on nuclear power for over 50 years, China is rapidly increasing their nuclear capabilities. Yet in Canada, and in many places around the world, we have yet to embrace the nuclear revolution. Not just with nuclear fission, but also major strides in fusion made by both French and Chinese nuclear engineers in recent years.
Canada has tremendous nuclear potential, holding the 3rd largest uranium reserves in the world and being an extremely well educated country. Canada also has a huge amount of under-populated, and tectonically inactive land where nuclear projects are largely risk free. So, why is Ontario the only province to actually embrace this technology. Saskatchewan holds huge uranium reserves, of which an estimated 85% is exported, so why not build nuclear power plants across the Prairies?
An expansion of Canada's nuclear industry would not only produce a massive amount of clean energy, it could allow us to slowly, but surely transition away from a fossil fuel based power grid, to one of nuclear, supplemented by wind, solar and hydro power. It would produce a ton of high paying jobs, not only in the plants themselves but in the mines in places like Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario where the majority of the reserves are.
So, why is Canada not embracing it's nuclear future? Is it lobbying from Big Oil, outdated concerns about safety? This seems like such a no brainer to me, so if someone could enlighten me as to why no level of government has ever seriously invested in nuclear energy, besides Ontario.
With this in mind it is clear that a new solution is needed to solve the energy crisis and help to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and reduce carbon emissions. That solution is increasingly being seen as nuclear power, and this is not a pie in the sky crazy idea, entire countries like France have been running almost entirely running on nuclear power for over 50 years, China is rapidly increasing their nuclear capabilities. Yet in Canada, and in many places around the world, we have yet to embrace the nuclear revolution. Not just with nuclear fission, but also major strides in fusion made by both French and Chinese nuclear engineers in recent years.
Canada has tremendous nuclear potential, holding the 3rd largest uranium reserves in the world and being an extremely well educated country. Canada also has a huge amount of under-populated, and tectonically inactive land where nuclear projects are largely risk free. So, why is Ontario the only province to actually embrace this technology. Saskatchewan holds huge uranium reserves, of which an estimated 85% is exported, so why not build nuclear power plants across the Prairies?
An expansion of Canada's nuclear industry would not only produce a massive amount of clean energy, it could allow us to slowly, but surely transition away from a fossil fuel based power grid, to one of nuclear, supplemented by wind, solar and hydro power. It would produce a ton of high paying jobs, not only in the plants themselves but in the mines in places like Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario where the majority of the reserves are.
So, why is Canada not embracing it's nuclear future? Is it lobbying from Big Oil, outdated concerns about safety? This seems like such a no brainer to me, so if someone could enlighten me as to why no level of government has ever seriously invested in nuclear energy, besides Ontario.
