Letter of the Day Winnipeg Free Press

Letter of the day

Wed Jan 9 2008
Nuclear power clean, safe

Penni Mitchell’s commentary is replete with misinformation and fear-mongering about one of Canada’s cleanest, safest and most reliable energy technologies: nuclear power (Nuclear energy’s ‘glowing’ future, Jan 6).

By Mitchell’s own estimate, renewable energy could only “meet 20 per cent of electricity requirements by 2020.” Where does she expect the other 80 per cent to come from?

Contrary to Mitchell’s suggestion that renewables alone will save us, let’s remember that wind and solar energy are inherently intermittent and unreliable: when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, no energy is being produced.

Mitchell then suggests conservation is the answer, pointing to California. Yet according to the California Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology, California imports 21 per cent of its electricity from out-of-state, pollution-prone, greenhouse-gas emitting coal-fired power plants. These plants release 67 million tons of carbon dioxide annually — as much as 11 million automobiles.

Is this really the example Mitchell wishes us to follow?

Only three technologies can produce large amounts of baseload power: fossil fuels, hydroelectric plants and nuclear power.

Given that we want to reduce fossil fuels and that potential hydroelectric sites are becoming scarce, nuclear power — combined with renewable energy where appropriate — is the right choice.