Nuclear proponents address Saskatoon business leaders
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 | 1:50 PM CT
CBC News
Promoters of Canada's nuclear industry made a direct pitch to Saskatoon business people on Tuesday, as the province continues to ponder the future of its uranium resources.
Neil Alexander, president of the Organization of CANDU Industries, told a lunchtime audience of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce that a nuclear power plant in Saskatchewan would create jobs and generate other economic benefits.
He noted that nuclear energy proponents need to address concerns about safety.
"I think the industry has not done a very good job of communicating," Alexander said on Tuesday. "That's why we're in a position now of having to try and get those points across. And because we've left it late in the day it perhaps appears a little defensive."
Alexander told the audience that the safe storage of used reactor fuel should not be a source of concern.
"So far in Canada no member of the public has been harmed in any way by 40 years of used fuel storage," Alexander said.
He also referred to the current shortage of medical isotopes.
"If radioactivity is so unsafe — which, you know, people have been telling us for years and years and years — why is it, now that we don't have enough for them to inject in their veins, that they are complaining?" Alexander said.
The audience was generally receptive to Alexander's message. Although time was allotted for questions, no one posed any.
