Uranium: Correspondence with the Premier

Publisher:  Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society, Regina
Year Published:  1979   First Published:  1979
Pages:  87pp  
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX995

Abstract:  This book is a collection of letters between Bill Harding, former Director of Programme Policy of the United Nations Development Program (New York), and the Office of Premier Allan Blakeney, Saskatchewan. Its aim is a critique of the N.D.P. Government's decision for uranium mining.

The following is a summary of Mr. Harding's response to six issues raised in a prior letter by the Premier.

1. Economics of nuclear energy: "Electrical energy is actually the most expensive kind of energy." This section notes the costs of nuclear energy include costs hidden to the public, e.g. research and development, legal and illegal reactor sale subsidies.

2. Demand for nuclear energy: There is no imminent shortage of traditional energy supplies; electricity demand is declining;conservation can reduce consumption; the technology of renewable energy forms is available.

3. Energy needs of the Third World: The problem is distribution, not supply. The New International Economic Order is the way to self-reliance rather than neo-colonial links through the ailing nuclear industry.

4. Nuclear proliferation: The option of weaponry is seen as an objective of most nations having or wanting nuclear technology. Reference is made to the U.S. General Accounting Office statement (1976) that 26 - 31,000 pounds of enriched uranium and plutonium are missing.

5. Radiation and public health: Nuclear waste storage: "All man and his technology can do is store nuclear wastes: we cannot dispose of them."

Subject Headings

• Uranium
• Uranium Mining