The plutonium connection: Why I no longer conduct my researc

[Oscar]

The plutonium connection: Why I no longer conduct my research at the University of New Brunswick

[ https://nbmediacoop.org/2024/05/17/the- ... brunswick/ ]

Commentary - by Susan O'Donnell - May 17, 2024

EXCERPT: "On Thursday this week, two very different emails landed in my inbox minutes apart. The juxtaposition jolted me, and I thought: it’s time to share my story about my departure from the University of New Brunswick.

The first email, from the NB Media Co-op, informed me that my commentary written with Gordon Edwards was just published. Our article [ https://nbmediacoop.org/2024/05/16/cana ... tself-now/ ] marked the 50th anniversary of an event that had shocked the world: India’s test nuclear explosion made with plutonium extracted from a ‘peaceful’ nuclear reactor, a gift from Canada. We questioned if Canada was making the same mistake by backing the Moltex project to extract plutonium from used nuclear fuel at the Point Lepreau site on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

A UNB professor friend sent the second email. He wrote: ‘This will be aggravating to read, but I thought you’d want to see it. I’m attaching the announcement about Arthur Irving’s death coming from UNB’s President. Arthur Irving is celebrated for his commitment and dedication to the environment. Meanwhile, people who are actually committed to the environment (e.g., you) are blacklisted.’ . . . .

As the release packages arrive, many heavily redacted, I’m making them available to other researchers, journalists, and anyone interested, via a page on the CEDAR project website, HERE. [ https://cedar-project.org/ati/ ] Using that information, The Globe and Mail published an article last September, [ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busines ... au-letter/ ] and Gordon Edwards and I published another in March this year in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [ https://thebulletin.org/2024/03/nuclear ... ion-risks/ ] about the collusion between the nuclear industry and the federal government to develop a policy on nuclear fuel reprocessing. My research continues."

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Susan O’Donnell is the primary investigator of the CEDAR project at St. Thomas University. [ https://cedar-project.org/ ]

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NOTE: "Some of you may be interested to know why there is such a lack of critical research on nuclear issues at Canadian universities. There are many reasons of course, and I know about one of them. Last year I moved my research program from the University of New Brunswick (which has a nuclear energy research centre) to St. Thomas University (which does not). Today I published my story about last year's move. Relevance to this list: reprocessing high-level waste and the Moltex project."