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Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout

Media Release
February 14, 1996. For immediate release


A new independent study suggests that the federal government should end its sweetheart deal with Canada's nuclear industry by cutting its subsidies in the upcoming federal budget.

NUCLEAR SUBSIDIES DRAIN CANADIAN ECONOMY
The Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout today released a new study entitled, Nuclear Sunset: The Economic Costs of the Canadian Nuclear Industry. The study characterizes the nuclear industry as a "sunset industry", with business and employment levels declining dramatically over the last 15 years.

Here are some highlights of Nuclear Sunset:

* When calculated in real, 1995 dollars, total federal funding to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) since its creation in 1952 until March 31, 1995, has been about $13 billion.

* The "opportunity cost" of the $13 billion is $120.4 billion. Opportunity cost is what the subsidies would have been worth if the government had instead invested them in break-even ventures.

* AECL has defied the Auditor General of Canada by not financially accounting for its decommissioning costs. The Auditor General's office has estimated federal decommissioning costs at $850 million, including AECL's portion, and has recommended that AECL fully account for these liabilities and create a fund to cover them.


"Canada's economy would have been much better off if the government had simply used the AECL subsidies to reduce the national debt" said study co-author David Martin, of the Nuclear Awareness Project. "There are far more cost-effective electricity sources than nuclear power. AECL's legacy is higher taxes and higher electricity rates", added co-author economist David Argue.

In response to Nuclear Sunset, Elizabeth May, of the Sierra Club of Canada remarked: "In 1997 AECL's current subsidy agreement expires and this government should make sure that it is not resuscitated. The government has to stop using public funds to breathe life into this dying industry."

Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility stated that "the taxpayer is being bilked out of billions of dollars to support an industry that cannot stand on its own two feet economically. No nuclear reactor has been sold in North America since 1978. Reactors sold overseas create stockpiles of plutonium which can be used anytime in the next 50,000 years to build atomic bombs. Why should Canadian taxpayers' money be used to prop up such a dangerous and irrelevant industry?"

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For further information, contact the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout , 613-789-3634.

Copies of the Executive Summary of Nuclear Sunset (4 pages) and Highlights of Nuclear Sunset (3 pages) are available from CNP.