Collaborative Proposal Creation
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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 Sibylle Walke
It is unfortunately true that the "waste " and by products of the nuclear industry can be weaponized. As far as I know no Canadian made byproducts are being sold to the arms industry. I am concerned about the potential.However I support the motion to regard nuclear energy as a necessary source for the future electrification of our energy. We simply need it . I follow the German story. While I have a solar installation and support small local energy sources, there is no "clean" power, that has no environmental impact.
I give credit to Stephen, because it is in fact possible to make a bomb that is highly contaminated with Pu-240/241/242. However, it's never been done before and for good reasons.
For governments, the reasons to avoid Pu-240/241/242 are obvious enough (a highly radioactive bomb with unpredictable explosive power is undesirable, and it's easier to make a purpose-built weapons reactor than a power plant). For terrorists, there are surely many safeguards on spent fuel handling? The Sum of All Fears scenario involved some extremely skilled terrorists, but even they did not consider making a bomb from spent fuel. First you'd have to figure out how to steal it, then you'd have to figure out how to reprocess it without a reprocessing plant, without dying from radiation sickness, while evading detection by authorities.
But I think a core matter of the disagreement must be whether it's actually practical to build 100% renewables. David, Gordon and I don't think it is.
Theoretical is nice but practical is relevant.
You are suggesting that someone is going to steal enough of the used nuclear fuel, separate the plutonium then build a bomb. Step one of your project is pretty hard given none of those big containers of high-level waste contains a lot of fuel, so you plan to airlift them out of the storage yards? Then open them up to get at the fuel - which is going to be a challenge requiring special equipment. Step two is even harder. In your secret hideaway, you have a huge number of power-hungry gas diffusion separators to concentrate your new low-quality plutonium. And a big connection to the grid for power. And a lot of technicians. You will do all this without getting caught or bombed!!
After the first two stages of your billion-dollar secret project comes the easy part: you build a bomb. In theory, it is possible. Go ahead - try and do it! I'd suggest this is just material for a not-very-convincing science-fiction movie.
Oh - and I forgot - The plutonium you get is contaminated with plutonium 240 Weapons-grade plutonium contains less than 7% plutonium-240. Fuel-grade plutonium contains from 7% to less than 19%, and power reactor-grade contains 19% or more plutonium-240. And don't forget the miscellaneous fission products in the spent fuel that suck up neutrons and make it hard to get a reaction. You will find some of those pretty hard to handle.
"Plutonium 239 is produced in a nuclear reactor when uranium 238 is irradiated with neutrons. Its half-life is 24,000 years, and it is a fissile material. When it absorbs neutrons in a reactor, plutonium 240 is formed. Subsequent neutron captures lead to accumulations of plutonium 241 and plutonium 242. Plutonium 241 is fissile, but plutonium 240 and plutonium 242 are not. However, all of these plutonium isotopes are fissionable by fast neutrons, and thus can be used either in combination or alone in nuclear explosives. Although the weapon designer's preference is always for material with high concentrations of plutonium 239 and low fractions of other plutonium isotopes, militarily useful weapons can be made out of plutonium with low concentrations of plutonium 239 and high concentrations of plutonium 240, plutonium 241, or plutonium 242."
https://www.isis-online.org/publications/fmct/primer/Section_I.html
The waste problem is so trivial we have not needed to solve it yet. There are no problems with the current storage of the very small amounts of waste our Canadian system has generated. No one has ever been harmed by it and we have lots of room left.
The proliferation problem is a joke almost a joke: using used reactor fuel is technologically about the hardest way to build a bomb. These are simply ill-founded excuses, superstitions, or lies.
Yes we were, and yes power reactors do produce plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons. Also plutonium is one of the most toxic elements known and is eminently suitable for the simplest dirty bomb. India is an example of a state that promised not to use our technology for military purposes back in the 1960s. Plutonium from spent fuel is the shortcut to the bomb there as well as DPRK and others.
Sibylle Walke, could you walk me though this weaponization?
The Plutonium in used fuel ("nuclear waste") has the wrong mix of Pu isotopes. It is contaminated with Pu-240 which spontaneously fissions and would not facilitate a weapon.
Because a Canadian RESEARCH reactor was abused by India to make weapons grade Plutonium, it might SEEM like a Canadian POWER reactors (our CANDU) are routinely pumping out similar Plutonium. If only someone could separate the Pu from the nuclear waste they'd have weapons grade material? No, that Pu is NOT weapons-grade and can never become weapons-grade.
It is still a controlled material. It is still tracked by IAEA. Terrorists won't get ahold of it. But none of that means that it is weapons-grade Pu.
Canada DID used to manufacture Plutonium (weapons-grade Pu) during the cold war, and sell it to USA. We stopped, but while we were doing it, we were NOT using power reactors.
Glad to hear you support this motion.
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