I have read many articles, columns and letters lately with regard to wind energy in general and the Wolfe Island proposed wind farm in specific. I have read these items with dread, as I know that it is inevitable that wind power will be coming to this area in spite of its unsightliness, inefficiency and expense. ...Climate change isn't going to stop tomorrow; weather patterns are changing. Who knows where the wind is going to blow tomorrow? You can't move a wind turbine once it's built; its placement is dictated by access to the resource.

For this column, I really tried to stay clear of political or controversial issues and write about something more whimsical and comedic. As you will read, I failed miserably.

I have read many articles, columns and letters lately with regard to wind energy in general and the Wolfe Island proposed wind farm in specific. I have read these items with dread, as I know that it is inevitable that wind power will be coming to this area in spite of its unsightliness, inefficiency and expense.

Long have I railed against wind power, offering instead nuclear power as a more effective and economic (in the long run) solution.

In Ontario, approximately half of our electricity comes from just 16 nuclear power stations. The number of wind turbines required to satiate Ontario's power needs could number more than 20,000; and that's just for the electricity demands of today.

Climate change isn't going to stop tomorrow; weather patterns are changing. Who knows where the wind is going to blow tomorrow? You can't move a wind turbine once it's built; its placement is dictated by access to the resource.

Nuclear power plants can be placed wherever we so choose to place them. It has long been my thought that the government would do well to use nuclear power as a means of invigorating a few northern communities.

Nuclear energy isn't included amongst the "green" energy options because it produces waste in the form of spent fuel. Nuclear power generation does not, however, contribute to climate change.

Reprocessing, a process wherein the fissionable material within the fuel is recovered and processed with mixed oxide fuels that are then further burned down inside compatible reactors, can reduce the required storage time for radioactive material from 10,000 years to some 400 years - and that's with today's technology. CANDU reactors, incidentally, can burn mixed oxide fuels readily.

In April of last year, CBS's 60 Minutes turned its cameras on France, which produces approximately 78 per cent of the nation's electricity through nuclear power. They found that France has the cleanest air of any industrialized nation as well as the cheapest electricity in all of Europe; owing in large part to their use of nuclear energy.

With some of the best nuclear technology in the world at our disposal (in the form of the CANDU reactor) and the vast stretches of territory available to place nuclear power plants away from people (should we decide that's necessary), I really fail to see why Ontario shouldn't embrace nuclear power generation as the future for our province.

Terry McGinn is an avid blogger and former youth advocate. She is a member of the Whig-Standard's Community Editorial Board.
Article ID# 1097995

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