Canadian Nuclear Association

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Background

The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) is a non-profit organization established in 1960 to "represent the nuclear industry in Canada and promote the development and growth of nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes"

Key Personnel

• Duncan Hawthorne - Chairman of the CNA - President and Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Power

• Murray Elston - President and Ceo, Canadian Nuclear Association

Strategising with Patrick Moore

In November 2005, Patrick Moore and Greenspirit president Tom Tevlin spent a week as guests of Canadian Nuclear Association members in Ontario, "planning strategy and communication", according to press reports. As part of the trip, they toured the Bruce Power nuclear plant.

"Building For Tomorrow"

In February 2006, the CNA held its Annual Conference in Ontario. The conference brochure continued the PR theme (see below) "Clean, reliable, affordable" and had a picture of a little girl holding up a globe in her hands. The Conference was called "Nuclear's Path Forward - Building for Tomorrow". International speakers at the event included:

• Dr Phil Ruffles, The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

• The Honorable David Wilkins, United States Ambassador to Canada who said that "Both the U.S. and Canada have national policies that will help open a door to a resurgence of nuclear power including safe, standardized plant designs, an improved licensing and oversight process, the advent of new technologies, and of course, the need to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. Our Nuclear Power 2010 program is a joint government/ industry effort to develop advanced nuclear technologies and bring them to market".

• Larry Craig, United States Senator, Idaho

• Ambassador Lu Shumin, Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada who said that "The Chinese Government attaches great importance to and fully supports the development of peaceful uses of nuclear technology ...China has signed agreements on cooperation of peaceful uses of nuclear energy with US, UK, France, Russia, Japan, ROK, Canada, Pakistan, Vietnam, Egypt and others under the principle of mutual respect of sovereignty, equality and mutual benefit, which paved the way for bilateral exchange and cooperation in the nuclear sector."

Also speaking was Patrick Moore who said: "Nuclear energy is the only in fact non-greenhouse gas emitting energy source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy global demand ... "There's virtually no other industry that has this good a [safety] record ... As you know, there are about 442 or 444 I think it is now [nuclear reactors] operating worldwide. There hasn't been a serious accident since Chernobyl."

False advertising

Like many similar nuclear organisations in other countries, the Canadian Nuclear Association is trying to repackage the nuclear industry, from dirty, dangerous and expensive, to "clean, reliable and affordable".

These words are being used in different media. They are on the front page of the website as well as part of a $1.7 million ad campaign that touts nuclear power as "clean, reliable and affordable". In December 2006, the ad campaign was the target of a false-advertising complaint filed by a coalition of environmental, health and church groups.

"Our concern is that the nuclear industry's advertising budget and approach distorts objective decisions ... about the future of [Canada's] electricity system," explained Julia Langer of WWF-Canada.

The formal complaint, filed with Canada's Competition Bureau, says that presenting nuclear power as "clean" is misleading, given hazardous byproducts "from the mining of uranium fuel" and the radioactive waste generated by nuclear reactors, which "remains dangerous for thousands of years."