Webinars • The Bay of Fundy shore: planetary treasure or nuclear testing ground?

The Bay of Fundy is one of the richest marine ecosystems on the planet and an important feeding ground for migratory birds.

Earlier this year, the governments of Canada and New Brunswick funded two private sector start-up companies (from the US and the UK) to develop experimental nuclear reactors beside the Bay of Fundy. They will be sited next to, but are very different from, the existing Point Lepreau CANDU reactor.

The two proposed projects are experiments based on nuclear reactors built more than 50 years ago in laboratories in the US with a history of accidents and release of radioactivity into the environment. Canadian regulatory agencies have no experience with these technologies and experts have raised many safety concerns. After intensive lobbying by the nuclear industry, the Canadian government exempted both projects from a federal environmental impact assessment.

Everyone is invited to join one or both of these free zoom webinars to learn about this situation. Panels feature Indigenous leaders and academic and medical experts who will give 10-minute presentations followed by Q&A with registrants. Each webinar will be 7:30 to 9pm Atlantic time (6:30 to 8pm Eastern).

Hosts: the RAVEN project at the University of New Brunswick• Canadian Coalition for Nuclear ResponsibilityCoalition for Responsible Energy Development in New BrunswickInvited: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Canada • NB Media Co-op • Prevent Cancer Now • Sierra Club Canada Foundation Atlantic Chapter • Sierra Club Maine Chapter

The Bay of Fundy shore: planetary treasure or nuclear testing ground?
Panel one: Monday, April 26, 2021
The 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster

Introduction and moderator: Dr. Susan O’Donnell, University of New Brunswick

Invited: Hugh Akagi, Chief, Peskotomuhkati Nation
The Bay of Fundy and Peskotomuhkati peoples

Dr. Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
The Point Lepreau reactor vs. the experimental reactors planned for the Bay of Fundy site

Dr. Dale Dewar, Former Executive Director, Physicians for Global Survival
Chernobyl: What we learned about the health impacts from a nuclear disaster

The Bay of Fundy shore: planetary treasure or nuclear testing ground?
Panel two: (TBC), 2021

Introduction and moderator: Dr. Janice Harvey, St. Thomas University

Dr. M.V. Ramana, University of British Columbia
The sodium-cooled and molten salt experimental nuclear reactors planned for the Bay of Fundy site

Dr. Edward Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists (United States)
The experimental “recycling” of used nuclear fuel planned for the Bay of Fundy site

Ron Tremblay, Chief, Wolastoq Grand Council
Resolution on Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste on Traditional Wolastoq Territory

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