As an investor i believe nuclear energy will progress more then any other alternative energy to fossile. Even though it's very expensive to put in place it's still very cheap in the long run as long as you close your eyes on the dangers it represent .

We all know about Chernobyl and Three mile island yet we make little of it because time does that, we forget and we say we've improved the technology . But an accident by definition can always happen due to factors impossible to contol or unexpected , and nature on the long stretch goes far beyond men's memory or expectations and when things go wrong , folks downwind or nearby we know what that means.

The advantage of nuclear not withstanding it's complexity is both the fact that it's a old ( recent ) technology in wich we've put but a tiny fraction of the money invested in n solar or wind and also a very reliable technology in terms of production for obvious reasons, not to mention it's magnitude for any given instalation.

It's also a very popular option for countries with close by ennemies where milary-industrial complex tend to ally among common interests and pressure their governements towards that path . But we also know that it can always be used for other means eventualy .

We know that for a fact here in Canada since under rather " naive " assumptions or otherwise political interes tin late 1960's we sold the old Candu technology to India who used it to develop their nuclear arsena,l thereby giving the incentive later on to Pakistan to find ways to do the same later in the1990's, in order no to be intimidated by it's archrival ennemy.

Of course previously India wanted to have " The Weapon " in order no to be intimidated by it's then northern ennemy up north ( China ) whom they were in a border conflict with at the time . Let's not forget we were in cold war time an in MAD ( Mutual Assured Destruction ) military strategy . We were then building Nuclear arsenasl on both sides of the iron curtain untill we reached over 30,000 weapons in the 80's when this inflation factor of " MADNESS " finaly came to a halt after the US outspent the USSR.

Under Reagan , military budgets in the US averaged over $ 400 billion a year for 8 consecutive years encouraged by the Star War strategy and fear . Then finaly Gorbatchev one of the most visionary political man of his time in my view came to power and got together with Reagan in Reykjavik Iceland and signed START ( Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ) followed by SALT ( Strategic Arms Limiyation Treaty ) wich are still in force.

India a the time it got the Candu in the 60's was then a western ally of course . And since China had developped " the Weapon " by themselves in the early 60's , following rebukes from Khroutchev to give them the technology , India felt a strong incentive to get it. So they turned to us the good Canadians and prominently American allies for purely civilian purposes ... They had to supply energy for a growing population of staggering proportion only surpassed by China, a then western ennemy supporting North Vietnam with weapons to support the Vietcong in it's war against South Vietnam and the US .

In those days the other grand sheme in political strategy was the Domino strategy basicaly stipulating that the fall of key western allies in strategic region such as south east asia for example could trigger a domino effect provoking the fall of a large number of allies in that region . The Grand proponent of that theory was secretary of state Kissinger mastermind of the war in Vietnam under Nixon , a man who was once quoted saying he could'nt find better company then himself for a supper !

As we see the domino theory must still have supporters considering the situation in the middle east mess .

In my mind Nukes are the only weapons of mass destruction except for one case and that is nuclear waste not to say that other kind of weapons can not cause massive destruction.

The ultimate deterrent nowadays anyway is nuclear if only because the sheer number of weapons and their massive power still existing added to the vector capacities in place make it possible to annihilate most life forms on earth .

But in the case of nuclear waste even though they're not weapons as such, the danger they represent in case of accident of massive proportion such as earthquakes or tsunamis make them as dangerous as such weapons

Canada is a marginal country in that respect because among all countries we alone accept nuclear wastes coming from nuclear weapons from another country. Following the START agreement , still being negociated recently between the US and Russia , Canada in order to facilitate supervision of the program and to reduce cost for Russia as well as a good will gesture from a american ally and a service to his american ally accepted to receive and " STORE " Nuclear wastes from dismantled older nuclear Russian weapons starting in late 1990's .

Those waste transit through the St-Lawrence river by ship all the way to Ontario and the " Bouclier Canadien "( i guess we call it Canadian northern shield ) where they are then stored deep under granit rock for generations upon generations to come . And that's what scares me most because all nuclear wastes wether from weapons or nuclear energy generators are to last for generations upon generations. We can easily imagine all the risks involved both in moving the wastes through populated areas and unadvised population for matters of " security " !!

But we can not possibly imagine all the possible events that can occur over the next milleniums that those wastws will endure being radioactive , as we know the lifetime of nuclear material is counted in thousands of years . the half life is the time it will take for a given quantity of nuclear material to lose half it's mass through radiation and so those waste will be there for longer then humanity has been evolving , now that's a major involvment and responsability that nobody can assume... unless something of major magnitude escapes me.

Not to mention that in case of leaks in the course of transportation one can easily imagine that all those involved would do anything they can to cover up the matter . I certainly have no trust in authorities involved in such activities condering everything else going on and the interest of so many to cover up in such eventuality especialy since all those activities are being done secretly.

I don't follow that kind of information anymore but out of memory a few " old " facts come to my mind from some 20 years ago or more.

Sometime in the 80's i believe it was said that nuclear waste in the US accounted already for over 1 billion cubic feet of water being under the custody of the nuclear industry, some of us remember that a few years ago the US contemplated storing nuclear waste in a similar way as what we are doing in northern Ontario at the border of Quebec and Vermont , outcries on both sides of the border then made the US authorities change their mind and head down south ( somewhere in Utah or New Mexico or Colorado or Arizona i don't recall exactly ).

I remember also that France one of the major nuclear energy producer in the world for around 70 % of their total energy needs was getting rid of their waste in special built coffin that they were dumping in Ocean's deep water... it was also said that some" corporation " or businesses of dubious integrity in Europe were getting rid of nuclear products from diverse origin dumping them in Africa .

I'm sure the industry as a hole is not ... dishonest but most enterprises aim at making money and the present crisis puts in perspective how shortsighted businesses can be when driven by profit and greed , and most of all how indifferent to the long term consequences to others . Human activity is mostly driven by personal ambition and for most people ambition is defined by personnal financial or social success and that exclude any medium and long tem responsability towards the world and humanity .

In such a selfish world Nuclear energy is mostly dangerous for the hole world survival and yet it's the most promising energy investment unless alternative energy are more supported by governments as well as members of societies across the world but is that wishfull thinking ?

As a last thought of reminiscing for some of the younger readers , it was shown by scientists in the 1950's at a time when there were surface nuclear tests as well as underground tests on a monthly basis and even sometimes on a weekly basis, that those tests tainted the milk of cows across the northern hemisphere with radiation. Then such tests were ban in the 60's following a crusade by a chemist scientist whose name i forgot and who was then awarded with a nobel peace prize ,

So most people born in those days who were then fed with natural milk, ingested milk submited to radiations . In those days some gigantic H bombs were blown up by the Americans as well as the Russians the british and the french on a regular basis to improve both their knowledge of the repercussions as well as the technology of the bombs .

Only after they agreed on the ban did they stopped the above ground explosion though the french went on to blow up some of them untill the late 80's if i recall ( on Mururoa south Pacific ) even going so far as drowning a greenpeace vessel who tried to stop them in a harbourgh in Australia killing some people and causing a diplomatic incident that would eventualy lead to the end of the explosions in Muruora. ( local populations were recently suing the french government for damaged caused to the region fisheries among other things , we all know how bad it gets when small communities fight for their rights against distant and abusive superpower whatever their names. )

As for China they also made some late tests sometimes in the 80's somewhere in inner Mongolia ,though all that comes out of memory, but could be traced more accurately by interested readers.

This little peace of history from the back of my mind is to illustrate the damages and abused caused by nuclear weapons and most of all the danger of spreading the most dangerous technology ever created by mankind and how, no matter what we do it keeps prolifirating across the world .

The fact that Pakistan has the bomb in the actual political context and the ongoing talks from Israel about bombing Iran to stop them from building the weapon should enlight us on the danger of supporting nuclear energy .START and SALT only concern the US and Russia cause they still have somewhere around 20,000 nuclear weapons between them while others are still building up their arsenal !!!

Prolifiration of the weapon is unavoidable once a country has the technology , there will always be some compliant scientist willing to sell his knowledge to build bombs to some goon countries with a bum neighboring country. Science and intelligence as we define it has nothing to do with wiseness

So Nuclear energy must be a last alternative in our developpement wherever we live , we must be aware that nuclear energy can lead to nuclear weapons with time 'cause political regime and leaders do not last forever and leaders are never to be trusted . But they must be held accounted . Remember they are mostly ambitious individuals surrounded by greedy people.

The Mendella , Ghandi or mother Theresa of this world are to be counted with the fingers of a single hand for any given century beware of the others and invest in other alternative energy wind solar and your own legs when possible .

I did'nt mention of course the worst event wich we all know of, that is of coure Hiroshima and Nagasaki , let's hope it will never happen again ,