Groups say funding new nuclear reactors is “dirty, dangerous distraction” from climate change.


For immediate release

Ottawa, October 20, 2020 — Public interest groups across Canada are criticizing the federal government for funding small nuclear reactor development and are challenging the government to release the research and data that support its strategy.

Victories in Freele Tract and Carruthers Creek Headwaters Show Power of Citizen Engagement in Land Use Planning

Although the government of Premier Douglas Ford is no Valhalla for environmental protection, two recent decisions in rejecting municipally supported requests for Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO) show that engaged citizens can wrest positive victories. One MZO request, by the County of Simcoe, would have put a waste transfer station in the 207-acre part of Simcoe County Forest, designated as the Freele Tract. The second by the Town of Pickering, supported by a developer, supported the urbanization of the headwaters of Carruthers Creek.

Small modular nuclear reactors:

Media Release Small modular nuclear reactors: A nightmare, not a dream for Canada in this week’s Throne Speech
A nightmare, not a dream for Canada in this week’s Throne Speech

For immediate release

OTTAWA, September 22, 2020 — In anticipation of this week’s Throne Speech, environmental groups across Canada are sending a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan that “small” nuclear reactors would be a nightmare and not a dream for Canada’s Northern and First Nations communities and are not the solution to climate change.

Statement In Solidarity - Calling on Canada to Uphold Peace & Friendship Treaties & Mi’kmaq Right to Fish

Statement of Solidarity with Mi’kmaq

We are all Treaty People.

Sierra Club Calls on Canada to Uphold Peace and Friendship Treaties and Mi’kmaq Right to Fish

Kjipuktuk / Halifax, NS, Sept. 21, 2020 - Sierra Club Canada Foundation condemns the racism that Indigenous people are experiencing as they practice their right to fish in Nova Scotia, and stands in solidarity with the Mi’kmaq in the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation.

New nuclear is NOT part of the path to net zero.

No plan that gets us to net zero in a reasonable time frame includes new nuclear reactors. Nuclear is far too slow and expensive to deal with the climate emergency.

Just like fossil fuel energy, nuclear produces wastes that pose unacceptable health hazards and economic costs. Radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants have been piling up for over 70 years. Canada still has no long-term strategy to deal with either nuclear or fossil fuel wastes.   

Building Canada back better means major investments in conservation and renewable energy, providing hundreds of thousands of good green jobs. 

Global investment in renewable energy and newly-installed renewable capacity has far surpassed nuclear in recent years. Investors are smart: they put their money where it will yield good returns.

In 2015, the Harper Government handed over operation of Canada's federally-owned nuclear labs to an American-led multinational consortium, currently composed of two Texas-based companies (Fluor and Jacobs) and SNC-Lavalin. The U.S. military-industrial complex is driving the push for new nuclear, hoping Canadian taxpayers will subsidize risky, expensive and largely untried “small modular” reactor designs, including plutonium-fuelled reactors.

In a CBC interview aired on September 19th, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said, “We have not seen a model where we can get to net-zero emissions by 2050 without nuclear.” 

O’Regan also claimed that net zero “needs oil and gas.”

There seems to be some confusion about time frames here. Transportation and home heating across Canada are heavily reliant on oil and gas. Electricity production in two provinces – Ontario and New Brunswick – is heavily reliant on large nuclear reactors.  But implying that this can or should be the status quo until 2050 defies logic. 

The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.

New nuclear reactors cannot be part of a rapid transition. The 2019 World Nuclear Industry Status Report says the average construction time of 63 reactors started since 2009 (37 in China) was 9.8 years. Small modular reactors (SMRs) have been long delayed. NuScale - the leading U.S. design - was supposed to generate power in 2015-16, but latest estimates are that it will be 2029-30 at the earliest.

O’Regan also said: "There are models that we're looking at that would reduce the amount of nuclear waste. There are other models that would recycle nuclear waste.” 

Whatever the models predict, the inescapable fact is that all nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste. “Reducing” or “recycling” radioactive waste only creates more radioactive waste, passing the buck to future generations. Worse still, some SMR wastes would be difficult to deal with. SMR designs that use recycled fuel require extraction of plutonium, creating serious national security risks associated with nuclear weapons proliferation. 

The only way to deal with wastes from fossil fuels and nuclear is to phase out these technologies. 

Canada is dragging its feet on creating a realistic climate plan. We already provide more fossil fuel subsidies per capita than any other G-20 nation. Let’s not compound this by subsidizing the pipe dream of new nuclear technologies.

If you agree that new nuclear is not part of the path to net zero, please sign your letter below to Minister O’Regan and your Member of Parliament. Call upon the federal government to minimize the generation of radioactive waste and to cease all support and taxpayer funding for small modular nuclear reactors.

Thank you for taking action.

Dr. Ole Hendrickson
Vice-President and Conservation Chair
Sierra Club Canada Foundation
Take Action

Great Healing Forests and Water

Urgent update: Since the discovery of the expansion of the range of the dense blazing star, a new threat has emerged to their survival. Without any reporting of their expansion or of the extent of the destruction in February 2020 to the adjacent habitat of a rare orchid, the Great Plains ladies' tresses, Niagara Falls is going ahead with a Public Meeting on Tuesday, October 6, 2020. Due to COVID the meeting is virtual. You MUST get your comments submitted before the 6th. City Council could proceed to authorize their destruction, subject to an appeal to the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal.

Ajax and Durham Councils Support Protection of Carruthers Creek Headwaters

July 29, 2020, an important victory was won for the protection of the headwaters of Carruthers Creek. The Durham Regional Council, acting in response to an earlier motion by the Town of Ajax, and many residents, opposed a request by the City of Pickering to urbanize these lands through the imposition of a Ministerial Zoning Order. (MZO)