NB - gives $20 million gift to American nuclear company....

NB - gives $20 million gift to American nuclear company....

Postby Oscar » Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:20 am

New Brunswick gives a $20 million gift to our American nuclear company

[ https://nbmediacoop.org/2021/02/15/new- ... r-company/ ]

by Susan O'Donnell February 15, 2021

In 2018, New Brunswick gave $5 million to ARC Nuclear, a nuclear energy company based in the United States. In 2021, it somehow looks better for our province to give $20 million to a clean energy company based in Saint John.

For a tiny start-up, the ARC company has been remarkably successful at getting money from governments in the two countries. Six weeks ago, when the parent American company was still called ARC Nuclear, the US government gave it $26.5 million ($33.6 million Canadian).

Last week, when the New Brunswick government gave it $20 million, the ARC company announced it would invest $30 million of its own money in the project. They call it “private-sector” investment. American taxpayers might call it something else.

The ARC company’s nuclear reactor, ARC-100, is very different from the NB Power CANDU nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau. The Lepreau reactor uses natural uranium mined in Canada as fuel. In their promotional brochure, the ARC company lists new fuel types for its reactor that appear to be sourced from the US.

The first type is enriched uranium. We don’t have a uranium enrichment plant in Canada. The US has an enrichment plant.

The second type of fuel proposed, the waste from light water nuclear reactors, we also don’t have in Canada. The US has light water reactors and lots of nuclear waste that it would be happy to export to Canada.

Another kind of fuel the ARC-100 proposes is “the nuclear material removed from weapons, which currently creates a serious storage and security problem.” Obviously, Canada does not have a serious nuclear weapons storage and security problem, but the US does. How convenient for the Americans if the Canadians could help them out with that.

If it is ever built, and if it operates successfully, like all nuclear reactors the ARC-100 will create spent (irradiated) fuel containing toxic radioactive poisons. They will require secure storage, isolated from all living things, for hundreds of thousands of years. . . .

MORE. . . .

= = = =

Nuclear energy company gets $20M boost from province, Higgs says - Feb. 10, 2021

[ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brun ... -1.5908995 ]
Premier Blaine Higgs used an upbeat state of the province speech Wednesday to announce his government will spend more taxpayer dollars to support the development of small modular nuclear reactors ...
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Re: NB - gives $20 million gift to American nuclear company

Postby Oscar » Sat Feb 20, 2021 9:00 am

Reactors are a risky investment

New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal (Print Edition) (Not found online)

Feb 16 • 5:00 AM Section A Page A8

For a small start-up, ARC Clean Energy has been remarkably successful at obtaining money from governments (“Private sector pledges $30 million to ARC”). Six weeks ago, when the American parent company was still called ARC Nuclear, the United States government gave it $26.5 million ($33.6 million CAD).

Last week, when the New Brunswick government gave it $20 million, the ARC company announced it would invest $30 million of its own money in the project, calling it a “private-sector” investment. American taxpayers might call it something else.

The ARC company’s proposed nuclear reactor, ARC-100, is quite different from the Lepreau CANDU reactor.

In their promotional brochure, the ARC company proposes very different kinds of fuel for its reactor.

The first is enriched uranium. We don’t have a uranium enrichment plant in Canada. The U.S. has an enrichment plant.

Much of the second type of fuel proposed, the waste from light water nuclear reactors, is present in the U.S. They would be happy to export it to Canada.

Another type of fuel the ARC-100 proposes is “the nuclear material removed from weapons, which currently creates a serious storage and security problem.” Obviously, Canada does not have a serious nuclear weapons storage and security problem, but the U.S. does. How convenient for the Americans if the Canadians could help them out with that.

After securing millions from the American and New Brunswick governments, the ARC company is now waiting for millions more from the Canadian government. In his speech, Premier Higgs suggested it will be forthcoming.

The ARC-100 is an untested new version of an old nuclear reactor design.

If the ARC-100 is actually built, it will take at least another decade before we learn if the reactor will work properly. By that time, most everyone involved in this adventure – in the U.S. and Canada – will be retired or on to other schemes.

Susan O’Donnell,
Fredericton
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Re: NB - gives $20 million gift to American nuclear company

Postby Oscar » Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:56 pm

Gordon Edwards <ccnr@web.ca>: Feb 11 05:07PM -0500

Many thanks to Susan O’Donnell for this letter

During his State of the Province address yesterday, Premier Higgs casually promised another $20 millions from the provincial treasury to help an American company to continue designing an unbuilt, untested, unlicensed nuclear reactor that will use American fuel (enriched uranium or plutonium) and a liquid sodium metal coolant. In the USA, the first liquid sodium cooled experimental reactor (EBR-1) suffered a partial meltdown in 1952; the first commercial liquid sodium power reactor (Fermi-1) had a partial meltdown in 1966 (it never operated again).

Gordon Edwards, President
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
http://www.ccnr.org
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