Nuke-ing the Peace
Will the Peace be green?
This is not illegal.
This zine was created through the participation of the Rural Rights Youth Action and Media Project and: Change for Children Association (www.changeforchildren.org) Other Voices Publishing Society (www.othervoices.ca)
The production and distribution of this media zine is 100% legal according to the second charter of rights. Just in case you’re having trouble understanding what that means (ahem! Bruce...), the Canadian Charter of Rights, Section 2 (b) states:
All Canadians have the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media forms of communication.
This zine is an example of said media communication and therefore any destruction or prevention of distribution of this piece IS illegal.
Collaborators: William Bird, Jocelyn Doll, Jasmine Fontaine, Nash Jensen, Melissa Milakovic, Trina Moyles, Keegan Selig, Erinne Sevigny, Kira Sideroff, Jenn Stroeder Special thanks to: Mr. Ladd, Mrs. Silverthorn and Peace River High School. Maria Cyr and the Doll and Moyles families for their hospitality
What can you do to do to stop Nuclear power? By: Jasmine Fontaine Get informed! Use whatever resources you’re able to; widen your range of knowledge on the subject.
Pressure the government to listen to their citizens (or at least not silence them)! Write letter after letter, email after email to make sure your voice is heard. Attend town council meetings and make sure they understand how many are against Nuclear Power Plant. Keep putting up your signs!
Spread the truth! Talk to family and friends and brainstorm what a group of you can do to contribute to the fight against nuclear power. Make sure to spread the facts and knowledge you have learned on to others who may not know.
Most importantly, keep putting up your signs!
It’s your right!
damage. Babies born throughout generations can have serious birth By: Kira Sideroff defects. All of these effects caused by radiation can stick around for many uclear power plants can be years. effective and efficient energy sources in some Effects on the Environment areas. However, the toxic Radiation will cause serious damage to damage that could result if one of these the environment, and not just humans. If plants had a leak or an explosion is far a power plant is located next to a major from worth the risk. water way and flowing river, it will have a larger impact on the environment. Immediate Disaster Effects Rivers flow into other water ways. The When you think about an explosion of radiation will contaminate the drinking any kind, anything or anyone who is in water. Fish in the river will have high the middle of it will most likely not concentrations of radiation poisoning in survive. A nuclear plant explosion them. People will not be able to would emit debris and radioactive consume the fish. Animals in the worst gasses into the atmosphere as well. Any hit areas will either die from immediate person who is near the explosion effects or could stop reproducing. (perhaps within a 5 km radius), would Forests will turn brown and die within not have much longer to live. These about a five kilometre radius of the explosions can cause a small number of blast. The “Red Forest” in Chernobyl, people to die in the blast, and then Ukraine earned its name from the several others who may have escaped radiation exposure from the nuclear the blast to die from the serious explosion which eventually killed the exposure to the radiation. trees.
Nuclear Disaster
N
Long-term Radiation Effects Unfortunately, radiation can take hundreds of years to decompose. This causes for long term radiation. Acute radiation syndrome is caused by too much exposure to radiation and is a sickness that damages organ tissues. Radiation can also cause other diseases. The highest example is cancer but it can also increase the probability of developing tumours and genetic
It’s a known fact among most people that nuclear power plants can cause serious damage. There are countless effects of a nuclear spill or explosion. Yes, nuclear power can generate large amounts of electricity, however the large amount of damage that could occur is simply too dangerous and long-lasting to consider.
Alternative Energy Sources By: Jocelyn Doll Nuclear power is iffy, and people are arguing both sides of the story. What if there was a power source that we could all agree on? Part of living in a huge country with people few and far between is having access to an abundance of natural resources that could be developed into alternative energy sources. Solar Energy: Sunlight energy comes in contact with the solar cell, and electrons from 2 different semiconductors absorb the energy, making them excited and creating an electrical current. 40 cells make up a module 10 modules make up a large array Provides power for an entire building Wind Energy: Wind turns the blades on a turbine which powers an electrical generator. In order for the turbine to turn fast enough to generate electricity the wind has to be constantly blowing at a minimum of 15 km/hour.
The amount of kinetic energy available in the earth’s atmosphere is around ten trillion kilowatt hours. an average 60 watt light bulb uses 0.06 kilowatt hours of electricity in an hour. Geothermal Energy: Using heat from the earth’s core to produce electricity Dry steam power plants- steam from “underground” turns turbines Flash steam power plants-geothermal fluid is pumped into a low pressure tank so that it vaporizes and drives the turbine Binary cycle power plant- hot steam is brought up, water is passed close to the hot pipes, the water vaporizes and turns the turbines and the steam condenses and returns to the earth, they do not come in contact with each other Hydroelectricity: Using a dam to control water flow so that the kinetic energy can be used to turn turbines. Biomass: Decomposing wastes from plant animals and people produce methane, if captured it is easily turned into fuel, and it burns cleanly
How to stay safe during a nuclear disaster By: Jasmine Fontaine
Bruce Power is all about security, so while they build their plant they are also building plans to protect you in case something goes wrong. Since it’s impossible to travel hundreds of kilometres in the required 30 minutes in which you have to get away. Here are the 4 Easy Steps to keeping you and your loved ones alive.
1
Find a place underground and take your family there. Dig a hole if you have to. Always keep a box in your kitchen of food. Canned goods. Make sure it’s a big box.
2
Buy a water distiller, because storing water takes up tons of room. Use this distiller to get the radiation out of the water. It should work, right?
3
Keep in touch with the outside world, but carefully. Cell phones and other types of communication will not work. Buy a ham radio because the signal is untraceable.
4
Do NOT leave the shelter. At least for a week, but probably longer than that.
Most importantly – Stay calm
Removal of protest signs a violation of human rights by: Keegan Selig
A
s nearly every Albertan now knows, Bruce Power has been planning to build a nuclear power plant in northern Alberta. Signs against the plant have been becoming more and more common. You see them on vehicles, in house windows, and on front lawns. Canadians are lucky enough to be allowed the freedom of speech, yet members of AMA working with Bruce Power have been removing these signs from the Peace Region.
any ‘no trespassing’ and ‘no hunting’ signs that cover the fences of any farmer in the Peace. Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that everyone has the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.
With the removal of signs from private property, Bruce Power and AMA are breaking this very law with every sign they take down.
Nash Jensen, citizen of Peace River said: “We believe that Bruce Power’s representatives have requested AMA’s assistance in the removal of signs opposing the nuclear plant. Without permission, residence’s signs have been removed from their private prop- “Bruce Power’s proposal has divided the community in one way, but in another, it erty.” has caused it to grown stronger and expand AMA had sent a letter to the Jensen family outward with everyone sharing the view requesting the removal of their anti-nuclear that nuclear is not a green resource. I wish sign. AMA told them that their 2x4 sign that it had not taken this to bring people would be distracting to any passing drivers. together, but unfortunately it seems that if it takes a struggle to get rid of nuclear power, The Jensen’s refused. Jensen explained that his sign was no more then I will deal with it.” distracting and no closer to the road then
Nuclear 101: The True Process By: Nash Jensen
T
he process of nuclear power begins with the naturally occurring element uranium, an element that has a 4.47 billion year half life, and a very low radioactivity level. This element is the placed within the reactors core, were the uranium atoms are shattered by undergoing the process of nuclear fission, to release heat with the nasty little by product of radiation; this then turns water to a vapor state and begins the rotation of a turbine to generate electricity. The once docile element is now shattered into several highly radioactive and far more dangerous particles, these particles can cause many forms of cancer in the body, thyroid cancer is among the most common. Younger children are more easily susceptible to radiation poisoning because of their bodies higher level of body fat concentration, the radioactive material can more easily latch on to this softer fatty material. Something else to consider is that it takes a nuclear plant running at maximum efficiency it will take between 10-12 years for that plant to become carbon neutral, this means that with all the carbon released during
the building process it would take 10-12 years before it was as if it had not been built. Nuclear power is not a renewable energy; in fact the uranium supply is already becoming very low. Despite nuclear plants’ ‘failsafe’ systems, there have been multiple mistakes, and they are just the ones that the public is aware of (not necessarily all of them). ________________________________
Known Nuclear Disasters 1979 – near meltdown of three mile island, Pennsylvania reactor vents massive amounts of radiation. 1986 – Full scale meltdown of a reactor in Chernobyl. ________________________________ There are many other events regarding the nuclear power radiation venting. Keeping things quiet seems to be their specialty. In the case of Port Hope, a nuclear facility that was built with the intention of refining uranium to weapons grade, had given dirt used to contain radiation to anyone looking for a cheap supply. After cancer rates in the school had skyrocketed, testing revealed
See more about the nuclear power debate and Peace River’s struggle with David Suzuki and “The Nature of Things.”
“…testing revealed that the school’s kindergarten and gymnasium showed radioactive levels 125 times over the allowable limit.”
This is one of the less terrifying realizations, when you take into consideration that the waste is going to be around for billions of years.
Bruce Power has never built a reactor, they First the waste will be places in wet storage simple purchase a pre-existing one and for 30-40 years, and the place in dry storage continue to run it as their own. in a container that can stand the test of time for a couple billion years. Until this They have three or more reactor options that container is developed, we will continue to they are looking at, some of these include ship the waste material around with the CANDU and another reactor that is armored convoys and angered nations must intended to use heavy water, and upon take the waste. review has been stated to be a faulted design. We currently are using the agreements that the uranium mined in a country must be The construction of a nuclear plant can run returned to that country, and Canada is a up to 381% over the estimated price, these major exporter of uranium. are already very expensive projects, and the price is commonly around $1.7 billion, and sometimes in excess of $5 billion.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2010/mynuclearneighbour/