Canada Signs Bush Nuke Plan, Hidden Agenda Glowing in the Dark

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I can hardly keep from poundin' my fingers through the keyboard. I'm pissed off. Dang pissed off. This morning, I learned that our country has signed on to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). If you never heard of it, I ain't surprised. Whenever anybody's asked about it, the HarpoonTossers clammed up. Just this September at the APEC Summint, they was asked and they wouldn't even say if they were sending a representative to a Vienna GNEP meeting.

Now, they've announced that we're part of Bush's nuclear energy policy. They say it's a done deal.

There was no parliamentary debate. There was no public consultation. There was no public information campaign.

Major international energy agreements that encompass all aspects of a dangerous and controversial technology cannot appear out of thin air. Canada's involvement is now a fact. Canada's involvement up til now has been shrouded in secrecy.

So, yer askin', what's wrong with GNEP?

Since the 1970's, Canada has had a moritorium on the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. This is because reprocessing spent nuclear fuel creates an unacceptable security risk. The reprocessed fuel can be fashioned into a nuclear weapon. I ain't talkin' about just a dirty bomb. I'm talkin' about an A-bomb. GNEP fosters reprocessing.

Canada is the world's largest producer of uranium. GNEP requires uranium producers to repatriate spent nuclear fuel. Canada will become the world's largest nuclear waste dump.

GNEP may be the first step towards Canada dismantling AECL, the crown corporation responsible for the development and sale of CANDU reactors. Avro Arrow, anyone?

A hat tip to Politics'n'Poetry and Accidental Deliberations.

Chewin' nails an' fartin' tacks,

JimBobby

Unilateral Uselessness: Poverty Edition

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I was just over to Red Tory's boog where he's got a story about compassionate conservatives in the Canajun boogeysphere. The topic is poverty.

I reckon tacklin' poverty is an international problem and needs full international participation.

Shee-it! Poverty ain't just a Canajun thing. There's poor folks barely scrapin' by in countries all over the whole dang world. It'd be nice'n'fuzzy, warm'n'feely to put an end to poverty but it shouldn't just be up to Canada. Canada only contributes about 2% of the world's total poverty. The big poverty producers like China and India need to do their part.

If we was to eliminate poverty an' China an' India keep pumpin' it out unregulated, we'd be overrun by hungry Chinese an' Indians lookin' fer free lima beans down at the food bank.

We gotta resist this so-called anti-poverty stuff which is nothin' but a thinly veiled socialist scheme to redistribute wealth. How can the poor get richer without the rich gettin' poorer? It just ain't fair fer the Canajun rich folks to suffer like that unless the whole world signs on.

Ho, ho, ho,

JimBobby

a "significant and unprecedented thing"

Whooee! France's new bossman, Nick Sarkozy sez a new climate change agreement between France and China is a "significant and unprecedented thing". Maybe. Maybe, not. Accordin' to Pryminister Steve, the Kyoto Protocol was a bigass mistake that the world shouldn't make again. Steve's big problem with Kyoto is that it didn't include countries like China and India.

How's a deal between just two countries supposed to do anything? King Steve sez any deal worth makin' has to include the whole dang world. Unanimous or useless.

Worse yet, this here China-France deal sez the two countries wanna work towards the selfsame goals as that bigass mistake we don't wanna make, Kyoto.

BEIJING -- Chinese President Hu Jintao and French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced after their talks on Monday the releasing of a China-France joint statement on responding to climate change and the establishment of a partnership between the two countries in this regard.

According to the joint statement, the first of its kind issued between China and another country, China and France both reiterated their commitments to the aims, principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The two sides will establish a bilateral consultation mechanism and hold consultations once a year in turn in the two countries, to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on climate change, in the principles of Common and Differential Liability, respective capability and equity.

The two sides pledged in the joint statement to strengthen cooperation in the relevant fields, including bio-diversity, water resources, desertification, natural disasters, forests, garbage treatment, pollution prevention and environment-friendly economic measures, and promote the cooperation on the development, extension, application and transfer of technologies.

The two countries will cooperate on the major technologies of energy saving, renewable energy, hydrogen energy and fuel battery, clean coal and nuclear power for civil use.

The statement said the two countries will encourage the establishment of joint ventures to encourage technological innovation on responding to climate change, and will also encourage their enterprises and financial organizations to participate in more climate change and sustainable development cooperation projects of each other.

The two countries will promote world attention to the climate change issue and devote to a series of projects on the research on climate change, and increase the possibility of common cooperation with other countries, in a bid to benefit the least developed countries, especially African countries.

The two countries promised to attend a meeting of contracting parties to the UN Convention and Kyoto Protocol, scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia.

Sarkozy hailed the releasing of the joint statement as a "significant and unprecedented thing". (Source: China Daily)

Well, I'm a cynical sumbitch an' I sure as hell don't trust the rotten, torturin' human rights abusin' Chinese. I ain't so sure the Chinese ain't just stallin' fer time an' tryin' to look good an' I ain't too keen on France helpin' China expand its nuke power capacity. France is nuke crazy an' that's part o' what they're talkin' about.

But I do gotta give credit where it's due. This here Sarkozy's only been in power fer a coupla months an' he's already got one o' the world's worst polluters to sign on the dotted line. I wonder if King Steve ever thought o' tryin' to get the Chinese to commit "to the aims, principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol."? Nah! Why would he? Kyoto's a mistake.

JimBobby

Cross-Border Shopping Litterbugs Shame Canada

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I got some bad news about some Canajuns. It's the Canajuns who's flockin' over to Merkan border towns an' cities spendin' their Lucky Loonies on bargains.

I live about 2 hours from Buffalo, NY. My brother's a Merkan citizen an' he lives right in Buffalo. He’s recoverin’ from some surgery an’ my ol’ Mum am’ I went over to Merka last Friday fer a hospital visit. I was dreadin’ the Peace Bridge traffic but we went early an’ came home early an’ there was only a short wait both ways.

I drove past a few bigass malls an’ big box stores an’ such but I didn’t buy a dang thing. That helped get us through the customs booth quick on the way home.

My Merkan brother sez the big thing they notice about all the Canajuns comin’ over lately is we’re a buncha litterbugs. He sez the mall parkin’ lots is strewn with discarded clothes an’ shoes. The Canajuns are tossin’ their old rags out the car door an’ smugglin’ their new wardrobes on their backs.

Embarrassin’, sez I.

When The Canajun gummint is gettin' an international reputation fer pissin' on ol' Mother Earth, it don't help to have Canajun spendthrifts litterin' the landscape with old parkas an' runnin' shoes.

We all know about the Ugly Merkans: loudmouthed tourists who disrespect local customs an' people. Now that our money talks louder than Merkan greenbacks, it looks like some Canajuns wanna be as ugly as their Merkan counterparts.

My advice to Canajun cross border bargain huntin' clothes smugglers: find a donation box for Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army. Clothes an' shoes left in mall parkin' lots just end up in the trash. If them clothes was good enough to wear shoppin', they're good enough to donate to some less fortunate feller or gal.

JB

"Liberal" Globe Can't Identify Liberal Leader

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, if you ever read the comments section at the Globe and Mail or if you listen to the Boogin' Tories, you'll have heard that the Globe & Mail is a Liberal Party mouthpiece. Nevermind the fact that the Globe endorsed Harper in 2006.

I'd figger that if the Globe editors are such Liberal sycophants, they'd be able to pick Liberal Leader Stephane Dion out of a line-up. They can't.


That ain't Dion. It's a feller with gray hair an' glasses but it sure as hell ain't Dion.

I think they got Dion mixed up with nincompoop pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.



JB

Senate Reform: Who Gives a Rat's Ass?

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I was just over to POGGE's fine boog an' I left a bigass comment that I'm recyclin' over here in my own little boog. PogFeller sez maybe the Senate ain't such a bad idea an' he also sez Smilin' Jack's got bigger fish he oughta be tossin' in the fryin' pan.

The Senate, as it stands, is an embarrassment. It may have some role to play with regard to "sober second thought" but when the members are unelected and there are no effective term limits, it amounts to patronage on a grand scale. I wrote up a song about the Senate one time when ol' Fartin' Martin was handin' out seats on the gravy train.

If the opposition does its job, a minority Harper government cannot subvert the will of Parliament -- with or without the Senate. They can stall things but they can't really do much? Pogge sez he figgers they can dig in their heels an' stop Harper's nutty ideas from affectin' us all. I ain't got that much confidence in them old farts.

But, dang-it-all, I'm alongside the PogMan that there's lotsa more important things ol' Layton oughta be yammerin' on. I had a laff when Jackwas on his horse about them bank fees. Sheesh! What a compellin' issue! Now, he's on Senate reform -- something else hardly anybody sees as a top issue facing Canajuns.

Want some big issues? Here's a few offa the top o' my noggin.

Ol' Mother Earth's in deep doo-doo an' accordin' to some pundidiots, Harpoon's managed to pull the wool over an' make a lotta Canajuns think he's as good as anyone when it comes to dealin' with the most important threat ever.

Afghanistan is a runaway train that's gonna come off the rails soon as the Merkans quit EyeRack an' start blowin' up Afstan, again. Karzai's headed fer the selfsame troublems that are plaguin' Perv the Mushy Sherrif.

Our First Nations folks is still fightin' 100 year old land claims.

Our water supply is threatened by wasteful Merkans who wanna tap into our clean lakes an' rivers now that they poisoned their own.

We got a bigass tradin' partner who is the worst human rights violator in the world an' who sells us tainted products fer our pets and our kids.

I reckon I could go on and on tellin' about things that are way more important than reformin' that retirement home fer friends of pryministers, the Senate.

It ain't just Happy Jack Laydown who's takin' his eye off the ball. They're all doin' it. Well... except maybe the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May.

JimBobby

NUCLEAR POWER SPEEDING UP GLOBAL WARMING

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I'm on a email mailin' list where I get info about nuclear power an' alternative energy an' that sorta stuff. I got one today that was written by a good ol' boy name o' Ziggy Kleinau. I seen ol' Ziggy speak at a meetin' over in Jarvis a coupla few months back where they was talkin' about puttin' a nuke plant here in Nanticoke. Ziggy's been livin' off the grid fer somethin' like 12 years. I don't think he has a boog so I'm gonna share what he had to say to the email list.

NUCLEAR POWER SPEEDING UP GLOBAL WARMING.

Much has been made of the power contained in a single uranium fuel bundle used in Ontario’s CanDU reactors to produce electricity.

It is supposed to be able to generate as much electricity as 380 tonnes of coal or 1,800 barrels of oil (Canadian Nuclear Association website "Nuclear Facts").

Compared to the burning of fossil fuels to produce the steam to generate electric power the fuel bundle undergoes a fission process, splitting the uranium atoms to produce heat to fabricate the steam to drive turbines connected to the generators in a complicated process of electricity generation.

Matter-of-fact so much heat is produced by the fission-activated neutrons that – to keep the fuel from uncontrolled meltdown – there need to be huge amounts of cooling water drawn from Lakes Huron and Ontario.

The 6 operating Bruce Power reactors, by the way, are drawing close to 17 million litres of lake water A MINUTE( ! !) to keep the process from overheating (Golder Associates Ltd. Consultants).

What happens to this cooling water? Most of it is discharged back to the lake, but not in the same condition – it goes back out up to 12 degrees Celsius warmer! This so-called thermal plume has been heating up the Lakes for decades, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Very little ice has been forming on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay over successive, even colder, winters, resulting in lake water evaporation over the full 12 months instead of the normal 8 months of ice-free water. Without ice cover solar irradiation will also have the effect of additional warming of the open waters, while ice cover would have reflected the sun’s rays!

No wonder lake levels continue to drop, now at record low levels, affecting the economy of shipping companies and marinas, with waters getting warmer, resulting in increased evaporation and cloud forming.

That powerful fuel bundle – and there are 5760 of them in each reactor – can remain productive for just over 12 months, at which time it has to be removed BY REMOTE CONTROL because the fission has made it so highly radioactive that it would kill a person, standing as close as 3 metres, instantly.

When it is removed it still contains over 99% of potential energy,"but to extract it out costs a lot more than just to take it out and put it under water" (Jeremy Whitlock, past President, Canadian Nuclear Society, quoted on New Media Journalism website).

That ‘spent fuel’ bundle is so hot (37,000 watts – AECL 1994, NWMO Study ‘Choosing a Way Forward – 2005) that it, together with its compatriots, has to be kept in huge swimming pools, called irradiated fuel bays, for at least 10 years to bring the heat down to 5 watts, at which point it is supposed to be safe to store it above ground in heavy concrete containers.

So this impressive energy contained in the fuel bundle creating all the heat – how much electricity does it actually produce? Figures quoted generally pertain to primary power generation only.

This writer has toured the Bruce Power plant several times, also the huge Waste Management Facility adjacent to the reactors. There are a large number of auxiliary buildings absorbing lots of power, huge pumps sucking the cooling water from the Lake, stand-by power yards, fire fighting equipment – of course computers are running all the functions on site – all these together consume about one third of the electric power generated.

Together with transformer and transmission line losses and with the THERMAL POLLUTION HEAT LOSS, only about 33% of the heat released by that fuel bundle, while in the reactor, reaches the end user as electricity! ("Nuclear Heat", Issue Brief, Union of Concerned Scientists, August 2006).

Talking about efficiency – EFFICIENTLY HEATING UP OUR ENVIRONMENT WITH A HUGE AMOUNT OF WASTE HEAT!

IS NUCLEAR POWER REALLY THE SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING ??

Ziggy Kleinau, Coordinator for non-profit organization Citizens For Renewable Energy(CFRE) has taken part in Environmental Assessment and licensing hearings before the Atomic Energy Control Board(AECB) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission(CNSC) for over 12 years.

Yeow! Ol' Ziggy sed a mouthful. I reckon there's a few things Ginty and his bunch might wanna look into before they mortgage our grandchildrens' futures with their bigass push to spend $40 billion bucks on nuke power.

JimBobby