Uranium Update

Premier Shawn Graham will host the other Atlantic Premiers in Fredericton to discuss how the Atlantic provinces should approach the future of energy in the Maritimes.  Oh how I wish I could be a fly on the wall in that meeting.  You might hear Nova Scotia Premier, Rodney MacDonald, muttering over a protruding lower lip about the moratorium he has to shake before his province can jump on board the uranium train.  If you’re perceptive, you might also see the honorable Graham barely disguising a smugly victorious glow.  Graham faces no such moratorium.  In fact, last month his party voted against such a moratorium claiming that the economic benefits to the province were too great to be ignored.  After careful consideration, I must say I agree with Mr. Graham.  Not only are is there money to be made through leasing mining rights to companies, and the prolific job creation inherent to digging big holes in the ground, but think of the future.  Nurses to care for cancer patients, truck drivers to bring in drinkable water.  Trulythe ‘economic benefits’ will continue to echo for generations to come (Uranium tailings have a half-life of 80,000 years).

To help ignorant New Brunswickers get out from under their rocks to bask in the shimmering green glow of the nuclear sunrise, Graham’s liberals have arranged for an indoctrination (sorry information) session, under the auspices of Natural Resource Minister Donald Arseneault.  The honourable Arse. has thoughtfully brought mining industry representatives and their scientists to enlighten doom criers about the totally not disastrous reality of mining for radioactive material.  Skeptics are assured that these scientists are not at all like the vapid cheerleaders that President George Bush enlisted to fight the war on reason.

My hope is that they will at last unveil the new treatment for Uranium Tailings.  Rumor has it that the industry has found a way to dispose of the millions of tons of radon emitting powdered ore left behind after uranium extraction (which contains 85% of the toxic nastiness).  In the past this flour like substance has been left to blow with the wind, contaminating soil, plant, animal and water without impunity.  Now, however, millions of flitting fairies have been equipped with miniature dust devils and hired to collect the harmful waste and convert it into magic dust for use in Disney theme parks.   Oh the splendid miracle that is the free market. 

We should count ourselves fortunate here in N.B. since in Ottawa and Wakefield they have to put up with the likes of Jim Harding, the former director of research in the School of Human Justice at the University of Regina, who is trying to raise awareness of his new book Canada’s Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System.

 

If you plan on attending one of the two information sessions and would like to get a sense of the hippie horseshit that Sean Graham’s Monkeys (sorry Ministers) will be inoculating you against then you can visit the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium.