GC36 Public Review of Nuclear Industry

Having heard Petitions 128 & 130, and noted and given careful consideration to the following concerns:

1. economic consequences of a phase down of the nuclear industry
2. the loss of technology development and necessary materials in the area of nuclear medicine;
3. support for the idea of a public review; and

WHEREAS it is our understanding that experiments are now under way within Canada using mox fuel (a mix of uranium and plutonium) in Candu reactors; and

WHEREAS should this technology be adopted and plutonium be imported for the purpose, Canada will have even more highly radioactive waste of which to dispose;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the 36th General Council request the Government of Canada and the provincial and territorial governments:

1. to undertake an immediate, full public review of the nuclear fuel cycle and our energy policies including such issues as the transportation of dangerous materials, waste storage and disposal, economic feasibility, environmental impact, social implications, and global ethics, this review to be completed no later than 2005;
2. to decline to accept plutonium from other nations, and to cease experiments in the potential use of plutonium as a component in mox fuel for burning in Candu reactors;
3. establish a fund of money from which grants could be made for research and development of alternate and benign sources of energy such as wind power and solar energy.
4. declare a moratorium on the sale of CANDU nuclear reactors.

GC36 1997 ROP, pp. 796, 924