A rchive Date
[ 07-11-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Columnists/Jenkinson_Michael/2005/11/07/1296235-sun.html
Nuclear power is the bomb!
By MIKE JENKINSON
Mon, November 7, 2005
If I say "nuclear power," one of three things will come to mind: Homer Simpson, Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. The latter two were disasters, and the former has become one, thanks to the Fox network milking its once-funny show for every last dime it can get.
But I digress, which is really Paul Whitney's job.
Nuclear power, however, isn't just all scary meltdowns and saying, "D'oh!" at a panel of flashing "danger" lights. In fact, nuclear power is making a bit of a comeback these days, as the world desperately searches for alternative energy sources that are Kyoto-friendly and don't involve burning fossil fuels. (And say what you want about radioactive nuclear waste, at least it doesn't contribute to that bogus concept known as global warming. And eventually, one of those radioactive mutations is bound to be the good kind that gives you superpowers, so keep trying.)
These days, when you think nuclear power, you should think China. Wired magazine ran an excellent story last year on China's plans to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the world's biggest Communist dictatorship as a way of providing Kyoto-friendly energy to its teeming masses.
According to the magazine, China is even developing a new type of reactor, which is actually based on an old idea that uses billiard-ball-sized graphite pellets with uranium in them that heat helium, and not water, to push a turbine. The reactor is reportedly a lot safer than the typical uranium rod, superheated and radioactive water-style reactor that can go BOOM! and melt its way straight through to China. Or so I've heard. Unless the reactor is in China, at which point the melted down reactor would appear somewhere around Winnipeg, where it would provide much needed heat and light in winter. So it wouldn't be a total loss.
Admittedly, I'm not a nuclear scientist (but, then again, neither is Homer Simpson), but China's model sounds good. It's also designed for smaller-scale power needs, which would be the kind of thing that would make such a reactor useful in the oilsands.
And that's good, because here in oil-rich Alberta, there's been some weird talk lately about building a nuclear reactor or two in the province.
Indeed, there were reports in September that French energy giant Total SA was going to build such a reactor in order to extract oil from the oilsands. (The company later denied the reports.)
At the time, Premier Ralph Klein was going, er, nuclear on the idea, telling the Calgary Sun, "Nuclear is probably the least acceptable at this particular time because we do have a policy in this province of developing every other kind of energy other than nuclear power," including my favourite method of power generation, the "six million hamsters running on a giant hamster wheel that's actually a turbine." They're just so cute!
And there have been some rumours that at least one potential Tory leadership contender has been quietly running the nuclear power option up a few semi-private flagpoles to gauge interest.
Frankly, I wish one of the undeclared leadership candidates for Ralph Klein's job would openly embrace nuclear power as an option, and not just so that I can have the opportunity to suggest as a campaign slogan, "Alberta's future isn't just bright, it's glowing."
But, of course, the most important reason why Alberta should start seriously looking at nuclear technology (and regular readers know exactly what's coming next) is for its potential as weaponry.
Oh, yes. There won't be any more talk in the rest of Canada about raiding our resources once we've got a few nuclear-tipped warheads aimed right at Ottawa, will there?
Senate reform? Done. Gun registry? Gone. Western alienation? A thing of the past. Stephen Harper as prime minister? Well, I'd hope so, but I suspect that even nukes have their limits.
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