Collaborative Proposal Creation
Create, improve and sponsor proposals in a respectful, fully bilingual environment. Grow proposals in the "Hothouse", for promotion to the "Workshop", to become official GPC policy.
Proposal text
Be it resolved that the Green Party of Canada long conflicted between the horror of nuclear weapons and the need to support reliable and clean nuclear power,
• will adopt a view of nuclear power that is consistent with the best scientific knowledge and practices, and
• will advocate for the continued development of nuclear power technologies, extraction technologies, nuclear waste disposal, and alternative nuclear fuels.
Type of Proposal
Public policy that the party would represent
Objective / Benefit
The GPC has a longstanding public position of preferring renewable power generation instead of nuclear power generation. Yet not one policy currently addresses the beneficial effects of nuclear power. All policy references to nuclear are to the prevention and control of nuclear weapons.
The objective of this policy is to establish a new policy that addresses the benefits of the use of nuclear power generation in a changing environment that urgently needs reliable power generation.
- Whereas the policies of the Green Party of Canada are to be based on scientific principles, and
- Whereas we now know how to build nuclear power plants that are far safer than our current operational designs, and
- Whereas nuclear power generation can be demonstrated,
- to be the least polluting of all electricity generation technologies, in terms of CO2 production per MW of capacity,
- to have the smallest footprint in terms of station size, acres per MW of installed capacity,
- to have the lowest volume of waste production in terms of tons per MW,
- to require the least input of scarce resources in terms of tons per MW,
- to have the best safety record of all generation facilities in terms of loss of human life per MW of installed capacity, and
- Whereas we do know what to do with spent nuclear fuel to ensure safety.
This policy will complement and expand the policies of the Green Party of Canada, making them more appropriate in an intellectually honest way.
If your proposal replaces an existing policy or policies, which one does it replace?
This is new policy. All existing policy addresses various aspects of the undesirability of nuclear weapons. It does not in any way reduce the relevance of those policies.
List any supporting evidence for your proposal
1. Jack Devanney, The Two Lies that killed nuclear:
https://jackdevanney.substack.com/p/the-two-lies-that-killed-nuclear
2. Jack Devanney, Why Nuclear Power Has Been a Flop:
3. Cleo Abram, The Big Lie About Nuclear Waste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzQ3gFRj0Bc
4. Burning Nuclear waste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u44skO-nMo
5. IEA on Nuclear Power:
https://www.iea.org/energy-system/electricity/nuclear-power
6. Our World in Data, Death Toll from Chernobyl and Fukushima:
https://ourworldindata.org/what-was-the-death-toll-from-chernobyl-and-fukushima
7. Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, LNT:
https://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/health/linear-non-threshold-model/index.cfm
8. Original text of this proposal: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j5bvh4dagagllrhus59h9/GPC-Nuclear.docx?rlkey=8ozj24vcajsvofrtgtpy9pt85&st=uvmsga8g&dl=0
Does this proposal affect any particular group and what efforts have been made to consult with the group or groups?
There are many in the party and outside, who consider Nuclear Power to be so dangerous as to be categorically denied as a solution to our future power needs. This policy reverses that perception of Nuclear Power. It is likely to alienate such people in their support of the party.
There is also likely to be an adverse reaction from the Global Greens, which would need to be carefully managed, though it is to be hoped that this motion will start a greens-wide reassessment of their positions on nuclear power.
Jurisdiction: Is this proposal under federal jurisdiction?
Yes
Please indicate the language the proposal is being submitted in.
English
This proposal is being evaluated
Posted on the Continuous Motion Development Vote tab for member review prior to the all-member vote.
Amendments (3)
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Created at
24/05/2024 -
- 0
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Created at
05/07/2024 -
- 0
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Created at
10/07/2024 -
- 2
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Conversation with Gordon McDowell
Susan, [Part 1]
M. V. Ramana is one of those names that jumps out as anti-nuclear. Is like coming across a paper on lifecycle emissions by Sovacool.
Report: Too small to be viable? The potential market for small modular reactors in mining and remote communities in Canada (M. V. Ramana)
"This paper examines the size of this potential market for SMRs by quantifying the electricity demand for remote mining projects..."
Susan, SMR are uniquely positioned to power remote communities in that many SMR are designed to operate 20 years without refuelling. The "pitch" is they would deliver power 365 days a year.
While intermittency is mentioned in the report, there's NO FIRMING COST.
Of course the LCOE will be lower for solar and wind... firming costs are the killer.
Ramana says storage costs are coming down. Ramana says we can still burn diesel or gas and just use solar/wind to burn less of it. If Ramana asserts nuclear is "too expensive" then why not also show an apples-to-apples comparison for a decarbonized micro-grid? (Ramana's report says: The LCOE numbers listed here are not an ‘apples to apples’ comparison because wind and solar do not generate electricity all the time.)
"Too small to be viable" also contains the following assertion:
"In both the United States and France, the two countries with the highest numbers of nuclear plants, costs went up, not down, with construction experience"
...actually, any replication of CONSISTENT REACTOR DESIGN has seen costs go down.
https://progress.institute/nuclear-power-plant-construction-costs/
CTRL-F: multiple reactors using an unchanging design
We see the overall-increasing cost of France's fleet by each reactor design... costs keep going up because France kept switching designs, yet we also see each unchanged design became cheaper. France kept switching designs instead of letting the reactors continue to get cheaper! (Maybe it wasn't clear how it was impacting costs at the time, and is only clear in retrospect?)
Unlike Canada, USA was incredibly inconsistent with every reactor deployment. Every nuclear power plant in USA is like a special snowflake. Vogtle 3 and Vogtle 4 will offer an example of learning-by-doing and we'll see if somehow costs went up and not down as 2 identical reactors are built one-after-the-other.
Southern Company Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders & Proxy Statement 2023:
"Our experiences through the construction, testing and start-up of Unit 3 have contributed significantly to improved processes and productivity as we work to bring Unit 4 into service."
For a report on Canadian commercial viability of SMR... why does Ramana cite USA and France to argue there's no learning-by-doing? Canada has an ongoing refurb operation which is clearly showing acceleration as it goes.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-darlington-nuclear-generating-station-refurbishment/
Susan. The paper you refer to shows that the market for SMRs in Canada for use in remote communities and mines does not justify setting up a factory.
But that conclusion is simply irrelevant. There is a global market for mines and remote communities. There are many other uses for SMRs. The argument is not quite as silly as saying the market for electric-powered skateboards in Timmins does not justify setting up a factory.
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