As Canadians watched the incoming images of the tsunami’s destruction on television, no one knew the devastation in Japan would lead to the world’s worst ongoing nuclear crisis.
It was said the earthquake that created the tsunami was so powerful, it shifted the axis of our planet’s rotation. What’s known for sure is the Fukushima nuclear crisis that followed, shifted the world’s belief in nuclear power.
While authorities in Japan scrambled to cover up the extent of the damage, the ongoing nuclear eruptions led to massive anti-nuclear rallies in Germany. The result was unprecedented. The Merkel government presiding over one of the world's most powerful economies decided not only to abandon plans to build new reactors but to phase out nuclear power altogether. The Swiss did the same.
In Italy, millions voted in a national referendum to stop nuclear. Countries around the world paused their nuclear ambitions. And recently, Japanese Prime Minister Kan said his country should be looking towards a nuclear free society.
Meanwhile back in Canada, the Harper government sold off its atomic energy corporation (AECL) to a private company, SNC Lavalin, for $15 million after the federal government spent billions of dollars to keep the nuclear agency afloat.
The governments of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick all chose to keep Canada in the nuclear age. These provincial governments dismissed the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis as a disaster that could never happen here.
In Ontario, the McGuinty government’s energy minister declared the province’s nuclear safety standards above world standards and confirmed that it would continue its $33 billion nuclear projects, the largest in Canada in 30 years. Only the AECL sale shook McGuinty’s nuclear plans because the AECL was a federal government guarantee for infrastructure and technology for the construction of nuclear reactors in the country.
While these provincial governments decided to embrace more nuclear projects, Canadians did not. A shift in nuclear beliefs in Canada was measured through a survey commissioned by the Nuclear Association of Canada. It found a clear majority of Canadians strongly opposed building new reactors. The survey showed a sharp increase in “strong opposition” to nuclear and continued decline in “strong support” for nuclear power.
With an election date set for October 6 in Ontario, public opinion about nuclear power is evenly divided according to the survey. The reigning Liberals and opposition Conservatives both support building two new reactors to replace the Pickering nuclear station when it closes in 2020.
Twenty reactors are currently in place in southern Ontario. All are within 200 kilometers of Toronto.
Public opinion polls show broad and deep support for renewable energy and conservation. However, neither the Liberals nor Conservatives will commit to use green energy to replace the Pickering nuclear station. The Conservatives have gone so far as to make an election promise to roll back the Green Energy Act.
The sole political party in the province opposed to building new reactors is the New Democratic Party.
With just weeks to go before the 2011 Ontario election, it appears that public opinion no longer clearly favours nuclear power. That raises the stakes as this election will determine the future of new nuclear reactors in the province and billions of investment dollars.
In an election based on pocket-book issues, the astronomical costs involved to build nuclear reactors might not go over well among recession-shaken Ontarians.
For more information about Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, cick here.