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An alliance of environmental, religious and public health groups has asked the federal competition watchdog to investigate a high-profile advertising campaign from the Canadian Nuclear Association that claims nuclear power is clean, reliable and affordable.
It contends the ad campaign is contravening the Competition Act by spreading false and “materially misleading” information to the public, and as a result is harming the competitiveness of other energy technologies in Ontario.
“We have to have accurate information disseminated to the public to make sure all energy suppliers have an adequate opportunity to be in Ontario’s future power mix,” said Hugh Wilkins, a lawyer with the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, which is representing the alliance.
The applicants include the Pembina Institute, WWF-Canada, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, wind developer Sky Generation Inc., the Inter-Church Uranium Committee Education Co-operative and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
The Competition Bureau declined comment, refusing to confirm whether it had received the application for an inquiry. Officials at the Canadian Nuclear Association did not return calls for comment.
In 2005 the association spent more than $1.6 million on TV, radio and print ads, the alliance says. Among the statements in the advertising is that nuclear energy “doesn’t create greenhouse gases” and is “clean and reliable.”
Mark Winfield, director of environmental governance at the Pembina Institute, said the public is being misled.
“How do you claim that you’re a clean source of energy when effluent from your primary energy source (uranium mines) has been found to be a toxic substance?” said Winfield. “And you generate tens of thousands of tonnes of mine tailings, waste rock and 85,000 units of (radioactive) fuel bundles per year that will have to be managed for millions of years.”
While nuclear power generation doesn’t directly release greenhouse gases, Winfield said, the mining and processing of uranium fuel, as well as the construction of nuclear plants, releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
He added that the industry’s waste storage plan requires that 50 truckloads a month of spent fuel be transported to a central facility over the next 30 years, with each truck spewing emissions.
“A life-cycle analysis needs to be taken for all potential energy sources, and with nuclear, so many of the key impacts take place at different points of time and space unrelated to actual electricity generation,” Winfield said.
The Ontario government revealed earlier this year that nuclear energy will continue to play a major role in the province’s power supply mix, but it capped the amount of nuclear capacity in the province at 14,000 megawatts.
This means at least 1,000 megawatts of new nuclear generation will be needed within the next 15 years, possibly more if existing reactors can’t be refurbished.
Environmental groups were upset to learn in June that Ontario’s plan is exempt from a provincial environmental assessment and will be subject to a less stringent federal review.