My Backyard
I spent the better part of my day with Ack, the ex-husband/best friend yesterday. My day off. My Saturday. It was filled with schnitzel and potato salad, beer, beer, beer, extremely good coffee, homemade pizza and talks of nuclear power plants.
He told me there is a reactor in Pickering, Ontario that is in dire need of cleaning. Has been so for some time now. Things leak, things don't perform well. People die or at least get really, really sick. Things need routine maintenance, and things need cleaning.
Cost?
Over $1,000,000,000.00
Just to clean the fucking thing!
As much as I hold my head over the state of the States, and incidentally there has been a 900% increase in hits, solely by Americans, on the Canadian Immigration site since the conceding, we've got our own shit happening over here. So I'm doing a little research.
Our politicians LOVE nuclear power!
We had 20 reactors running for a while. In 1997, 8 of these were shut down from poor performance and safety issues. These dangerous behemoths are proposed at costing $3-4 billion per. The Darlington plant was estimated at $4 billion. The final price tag? $14.3 BILLION! It's a ridiculous choice. The longevity is weak and the potential destructive ramifications are disasterous.
Core meltdown in 5, 4, 3, 2...
And they want to build more of these potential Chernobyl devices. One hit, with the shields weak, would wipe out this entire continent.
Then I learned the government has LOST over $30 million. Lost it. They have no idea where it is. Sorry. I guess this just goes back into the deficit thing. Whoops! Really, we're sorry.
This is fucked!
They take between 27-51% of our earnings. Consistently. Then if you're "lucky" enough to own a house they hit you with Property Taxes. My boss has to pay $3 for a yellow bag to bag restaurant waste. The Yellow Bag slips over the regular black garbage bag, which to me is further waste. But he HAS to buy these bags at $3/bag otherwise he'll get fined! This is in addition to a whole host of commercial taxes he's required to pay, just so he can operate a business.
We keep electing these minions back into office because we're stupid and we're hopeful. During the election process they're all about the implementation of advanced renewable energy resources. They all promise to shut down the coal plants. They *really* are looking at "green" choices! The truth is we have just as few worthwhile political hopefuls as our southern pals that make these crucial decisions - certainly not fulfilling any of my wishes.
Lately my boss' favourite saying is, "No Freedom Left."
Apparently the most cost effective and generally all round effective source of electricity is steam generation. The "waste" could heat the entire downtown core. $14.3 billion. Just on one reactor. If they didn't like the steam generators they would have enough to buy 14,300 wind power generators. Zero waste. And they look mighty cool and fierce!
He told me there is a reactor in Pickering, Ontario that is in dire need of cleaning. Has been so for some time now. Things leak, things don't perform well. People die or at least get really, really sick. Things need routine maintenance, and things need cleaning.
Cost?
Over $1,000,000,000.00
Just to clean the fucking thing!
As much as I hold my head over the state of the States, and incidentally there has been a 900% increase in hits, solely by Americans, on the Canadian Immigration site since the conceding, we've got our own shit happening over here. So I'm doing a little research.
Our politicians LOVE nuclear power!
We had 20 reactors running for a while. In 1997, 8 of these were shut down from poor performance and safety issues. These dangerous behemoths are proposed at costing $3-4 billion per. The Darlington plant was estimated at $4 billion. The final price tag? $14.3 BILLION! It's a ridiculous choice. The longevity is weak and the potential destructive ramifications are disasterous.
Core meltdown in 5, 4, 3, 2...
And they want to build more of these potential Chernobyl devices. One hit, with the shields weak, would wipe out this entire continent.
Then I learned the government has LOST over $30 million. Lost it. They have no idea where it is. Sorry. I guess this just goes back into the deficit thing. Whoops! Really, we're sorry.
This is fucked!
They take between 27-51% of our earnings. Consistently. Then if you're "lucky" enough to own a house they hit you with Property Taxes. My boss has to pay $3 for a yellow bag to bag restaurant waste. The Yellow Bag slips over the regular black garbage bag, which to me is further waste. But he HAS to buy these bags at $3/bag otherwise he'll get fined! This is in addition to a whole host of commercial taxes he's required to pay, just so he can operate a business.
We keep electing these minions back into office because we're stupid and we're hopeful. During the election process they're all about the implementation of advanced renewable energy resources. They all promise to shut down the coal plants. They *really* are looking at "green" choices! The truth is we have just as few worthwhile political hopefuls as our southern pals that make these crucial decisions - certainly not fulfilling any of my wishes.
Lately my boss' favourite saying is, "No Freedom Left."
Apparently the most cost effective and generally all round effective source of electricity is steam generation. The "waste" could heat the entire downtown core. $14.3 billion. Just on one reactor. If they didn't like the steam generators they would have enough to buy 14,300 wind power generators. Zero waste. And they look mighty cool and fierce!
posted by Comrade Chicken at
12:43 a.m.
2 Comments:
Good to hear you engaging in the quintessential Canadian pastime of bitching about the government. The points that you brought up, and countless others that follow along the "wasting our money, pretending to care about issues, and generally fucking up" vein are part of what have made me politically desensitized.
I'll have to find a new outlet for my zealotry, as the government is, basically, FUBAR...
I never told you this but I study Public Administration and Governance at Ryerson (and have a smokin GPA I should add). Also I have spent the better part of a year working at the Ontario and Federal bureaucracy, toiling away at the lowest rungs. So I know a few things about government/bureaucracy that others do not.
The inherent problem with Canadian governance, is that we Canadians haven't really decided what kind of a country we want to have. We're kind of sitting on the fence between socialist European Utopia, and gritty North American capitalist police-state.
The government has to try to please both camps, and hence can't really do anything unless they do it half-assed.
Once we as Canadians make up our fucking minds and STOP VOTING LIBERAL and either START VOTING NDP or (god forbid) start voting for the RIGHT WING PARTIES, than things will become clear and unambiguous. For better or for worse, at least we'll know where we stand.
My $0.02.
By
RevoloutionaryRob, at 2:25 p.m.
there's a nuclear reactor less than 50 miles north of new york city, called indian point. it's scary because nyc proper is actually within the evacuation radius, although let's all not kid ourselves, the idea of an evacuation is only a matter of comfort not reality. it's fucking scary, and investigations found indian point to be sorely lacking in both safety and security. awesome.
By
whatever, at 3:08 p.m.
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