Engaging Your Community

The argument for nuclear power

 

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick More supports nuclear power, stating that “more than 100 nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada that are currently operational and said no one has ever been injured as a result of radiation.” 10 The ability to generate the energy required to sustain our current electrical standards as “you would still need a solar panel seven times the size of a nuclear power plant to generate the same amount of electricity”. 11. YouTubers like Johnny Harris and Cleo Abram argue that nuclear energy is safe 12, corroborated by, ASAP Science.13.

 

A realistic look at Nuclear Power.

 

This year, Ottawa announced the expansion of the Bruce Power Plant 14, which was built in the 1960s on the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, without consent.15. The government of Canada’s website claims that there is a priority to consult Indigenous Nations,16 , although PhD Student Kathleen Brosemer has been an open critic of how the consultation actually happened 17.

 

The objections of the nuclear facility are valid, as there have been significant traumas due to nuclear disasters. In Fukushima Japan, there were no immediate deaths, but since then there have been “more than 2,000 disaster-related deaths.”18. Living in Okinawa, I would hear news about nature, including mutations of butterflies on the island19. While teaching English, a pediatrician from Fukushima shared that “the government told us to stop testing for cancer in children”. Her words were amplified when a group of six young Japanese people sued the plant operators because of thyroid cancer after the disaster20. Children who left Fukushima have had “bullying caused by stigma and prejudice”, which included a boy being “hit and kicked by his classmates and called a ‘germ’” 21. The bullying is compounded on top of the natural anxiety that the children develop.

 

There are few studies on the extent of PTSD symptoms25, but this is not a surprise as “until recently, literature on the climate crisis has tended to ignore children just as much as it ignores other-than-human creatures.”26

 

1.  Noone, S. (2029, July 9). Greenpeace co-founder, ex-director calls nuclear safest energy. News Nation. https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/tech/greenpeace-co-founder-ex-director-calls-nuclear-safest-energy/
2. Smith, S.A. (2007) Nuclear plants are safe: [Final Edition], Edmonton Journal, A19. https://www.proquest.com/docview/253481982?parentSessionId=lHNd2b0cAyPA%2FHTBaQR0YWOyR7L1ZYxT%2FfVVhh78fvg%3D&pq-origsite=summon&accountid=13631&sourcetype=Newspapers
3. Harris, J. [Johnny Harris]. (2023, May 10). WTF Happened to Nuclear Energy? [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzTgZ6kOEM8
4. asapSCIENCE [asapSCIENCE] (2021, Mar 25). The Truth About Nuclear Energy [Video] YouTube.https://youtu.be/glM80kRWbes?si=Tw_XSzBo5sXZ9Y4J
5. McKenna, K. (2024, Feb 29) Ottawa pledging $50M for Bruce Power nuclear plant expansion. CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nuclear-money-bruce-power-expansion-1.7127490#:~:text=Bruce%20Power%20plans%20to%20expand,generating%20stations%20in%20the%20world.
6. Williams, K. (2023, Jul 11). Nuclear waste issue must be resolved before new facility can be explored, says Saugeen Ojibway Nation. aptnnews. https://www.aptnnews.ca/featured/nuclear-waste-issue-must-be-resolved-before-new-facility-can-be-explored-says-saugeen-ojibway-nation/
7. Indigenous consultation and engagement (2024, Feb 12) Government of Canada. Retrieved April 29, 2024. https://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/resources/aboriginal-consultation/indigenous-commitment-reconciliation/
8. McCleary, S. (2021, Nov 22) Local delegate has her say at COP26. Sault This Week. https://www.saultthisweek.com/news/local-news/local-delegate-has-her-say-at-cop26
9. The Editors of Encyclopedia Brittanica. (2024, Mar 19). Fukushima accident. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Fukushima-accident
10. Satonobu, K. (2016, Mar 11). The butterfly effect of Fukushima. swissinfo.ch https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/butterfly-effect/42010644
11. Fukushima nuclear disaster: Japanese youth sue over cancer diagnoses. (2022, Jan 22). BBC. Retrieved on April 29, 2024 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60150733

 

1. Sawano, T. et al. (2018, Apr 9) The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and school bullying of affected children and adolescents: the need for continuous radiation education. Journal of Radiation Research, Volume 59, Issue 3, May 2018, Pages 381–384. https://academic.oup.com/jrr/article/59/3/381/4964812?login=false
2. 50 Years of Terrorism against the Nuclear Industry: A Review of 91 Incidents in the Global Terrorism Database. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2023 Apr; 38(2): 199–206https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10067068/#:~:text=Terrorist%20attack%20carried%20out%20by,radioactive%20fallout%20or%20environmental%20contamination.
3. Japanese Indigenous community decries U.S. and Canadian military presence on Okinawa Island. (2023, Nov. 26) Global News. https://globalnews.ca/video/10116503/japanese-indigenous-community-decries-us-canadian-military-presence-on-okinawa-island
4. Narushige, M (2023, June 8). Japan’s New National Security Strategy. csis. https://www.csis.org/analysis/japans-new-national-security-strategy

Korol, M. Green, B. Gleser, G. (1999) Children’s Responses to a Nuclear Waste Disaster: PTSD Symptoms and Outcome Prediction. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Volume 38, Issue 4, April 1999, Pages 368-375