EL FASCISTO
El Salvador's Bukele gets greenlight to run for re-election

Issued on: 04/09/2021 - 

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele enjoys broad popularity but has been accused of authoritarian tendencies Oscar Rivera AFP

San Salvador (AFP)

El Salvador's top court Friday said populist President Nayib Bukele would be allowed to run for a second term, despite the country's constitution prohibiting the head of state from serving two consecutive terms in office.

The Supreme Court decision will allow Bukele to run for a second term in 2024 -- potentially making him the Central American nation's first president to serve more than five years in office since the 1950s.

In its ruling, the court said a sitting head of state could seek re-election for a second term as long as they have not "been president during the immediately preceding period".

The decision was handed down by judges appointed to El Salvador's highest court by Bukele in May after the country's parliament removed several justices critical of the government -- a move decried by critics as a "coup d'etat" and one which sparked international condemnation.

The new judges then reversed a previous decision by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court that ruled the president could not serve more than one consecutive mandate. However, that ruling did allow the head of state to run again in a subsequent election.

Elected in 2019, Bukele enjoys broad support in El Salvador over his promises to fight organised crime and improve security in the violence-wracked country.

His allies also hold a large majority in the country's Congress -- a situation not seen since a peace deal in 1992 put an end to 12 years of bloody civil war.

But he has long been accused of authoritarian tendencies.

Last year, Bukele dispatched troops to the country's parliament in a bid to pressure lawmakers.

© 2021 AFP

Top Afghan TV network stays on-air despite fear of Taliban

Issued on: 04/09/2021 - 

Tolo has kept broadcasting, but it now faces a tough and uncertain future 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP

Kabul (AFP)

As Taliban fighters entered Kabul on the evening of August 15, executives at Afghanistan's biggest independent TV network had a tough decision to make: stay on-air or go dark.

Tolo kept broadcasting, but like the rest of the country's TV and radio stations, it now faces a tough and uncertain future under the Taliban, whose return has sent fear coursing through the media.

The Islamist militant group killed and threatened journalists throughout its 20-year insurgency.


During their 1996-2001 regime, TV and most entertainment were banned, and there was no media to speak of.

The Taliban takeover "put us in a very, very difficult situation... to continue our work or not," Lotfullah Najafizada, the director of Tolo News, told AFP in a phone interview.

"As a 24/7 news operation, we didn't even have one hour to take a break and rethink."

Tolo stayed on because it had a duty to cover the news, he said, and also because it would have been an "almost impossible" task to negotiate a resumption with the Taliban had the network shut down.

The Taliban leadership has asked Afghan media to operate as usual.

One official even sat down for an interview with a woman host on Tolo News, keen to convince people that the Taliban will be softer this time around.

One Taliban official has sat down for an interview with a woman host on Tolo News WAKIL KOHSAR AFP/File

But many Afghans, including in the media, are not convinced.

"We're scared, I'll be honest with you, we are nervous," Saad Mohseni, CEO of Tolo's parent company Moby Group, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) from Dubai.

"Everyone is having sleepless nights, but what the viewer is experiencing is not that different."

- 'My family will be threatened' -

The Taliban victory has plunged Afghanistan's independent media into crisis.

Around 100 privately owned outlets have suspended operations, according to watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The Pajhwok news agency said many shut down because of the financial crunch caused by the Taliban takeover.

It has also forced many women out of the industry.

RSF said only 76 women journalists are still working for outlets in the Afghan capital -- a huge drop from the 700 reported last year.

The Taliban's return has sent fear coursing through the media but Tolo has stayed on to cover the news WAKIL KOHSAR AFP/File

Outside Kabul, it added, "most women journalists have been forced to stop working".

There have also been reports of intimidation, harassment and violence.

In one shocking incident, a group of Taliban fighters stormed the studio of the privately owned Afghanistan TV.

They stood behind the anchor's desk holding assault rifles as their commander read out a statement urging viewers to not be afraid of the group.

Such threats have forced scores of Afghan journalists to flee -- including Beheshta Arghand, who left days after she conducted the ground-breaking Taliban interview on Tolo News.

"Because of me, my family will be threatened by the Taliban," she told diplomats in Qatar on Wednesday.

- Cultural revolution -

The cataclysmic changes follow two decades of explosive growth for independent Afghan media.

After the Taliban were toppled in 2001, dozens of TV channels and more than 160 radio stations were set up with Western assistance and private investment.

And Moby Group's flagship Tolo TV and Tolo News -- the most-watched channels in Afghanistan -- embodied that cultural revolution.

The cataclysmic changes follow two decades of explosive growth for independent Afghan media 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP/File

They brought programming to Afghans that would have been unthinkable under the Taliban, from an "American Idol"-style singing competition to music videos, soap operas and even Afghanistan's first presidential election debates.

Most dramatically, Tolo and other Afghan networks gave space and opportunities to women, who were shut out from public life, education and workplaces by the Taliban.

Now, there are fears of a rollback.

Tolo's Najafizada told AFP the entertainment arm of the company has already pulled back on some content.

- Brain drain -

The Taliban have yet to issue any formal directives to the media, and outlets have mainly relied on self-censorship to avoid upsetting the Islamists.

Some are also planning for contingencies.

The Moby Group is considering options to operate from overseas if there is a crackdown on Tolo.

CEO Mohseni has said orders such as a ban on women journalists or censorship would be a "red line".

After the Taliban were toppled, Tolo rose to become Afghanistan's biggest independent TV network, and even hosted presidential election debates 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP/File

Meanwhile, the company is on a hiring spree to try and fill the gap left by the dozens of staff who left after the fall of Kabul.

"The sad thing is to lose this much capacity, to see a generation of people who we've invested in, who could have done so much for the country, being forced to leave," Mohseni told the CPJ.

"This brain drain will take us another two decades to build that sort of capacity, sadly."

© 2021 AFP

Taliban celebratory gunfire turns deadly, Pakistan’s spy chief arrives in Afghanistan


THE TALIBAN WERE CREATED BY ISI; THE PAK SPY AGENCY UNDER BENAZIR BHUTTO

Issued on: 04/09/2021 - 

Taliban forces patrol at a runway at Kabul airport the day after the August 31, 2021 US troop withdrawal deadline. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo © STR, Reuters

Text by: FRANCE 24

At least 17 people were killed in Kabul due to the Taliban’s celebratory Friday night gunfire, news agencies said on Saturday as Pakistan’s powerful intelligence chief made a surprise visit to Afghanistan amid reports of intense fighting between the hardline Islamist group and resistance fighters in the Panjshir Valley.

Afghan medical officers said 17 people were killed and 41 wounded people were admitted to a Kabul hospital due to injuries sustained during the Taliban's celebratory gunfire, Afghanistan's leading private news station, Tolo TV, reported Saturday.

In the eastern province of Nangarhar, at least 14 people were injured in celebratory firing, said Gulzada Sangar, spokesman for an area hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.

DUH OH

The gunfire drew a rebuke from the main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.

"Avoid shooting in the air and thank God instead," Mujahid said in a message on Twitter. "The weapons and bullets given to you are public property. No one has the right to waste them. The bullets can also harm civilians, don't shoot in vain."

The gunfire celebrations erupted overnight as Taliban supporters on Twitter said the Panjshir Valley, where anti-Taliban resistance fighters are based, had fallen. The Taliban however made no official claim Saturday and a resident told AFP by phone that the reports were false.

Amid reports of intense fighting in the Panjshir, Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief made a surprise visit to Kabul on Saturday.

Hameed arrived in Kabul Saturday morning, leading a delegation of "senior Pakistani officials", to discuss security, economic and trade issues, according to Pakistani media reports.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban leadership was based in neighbouring Pakistan and were often said to be in direct contact with the country's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Pakistan routinely denies giving the Taliban military aid and the Taliban maintains it is an independent Afghan nationalist group.

 

'The resistance is continuing'

Meanwhile in the Panjshir, Afghanistan's former vice president Amrullah Saleh, holed out alongside Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, admitted the National Resistance Front (NRF) was in a perilous position.

"The situation is difficult, we have been under invasion," Saleh said in a video message.

Saleh, a former Afghan spy chief who has survived numerous Taliban attempts on his life, was filmed wearing a traditional shalwar kameez tunic and a flat woollen pakol cap favoured by Panjshiris.

"The resistance is continuing and will continue," he added.

Aid talks

Away from the valley, the international community was coming to terms with having to deal with the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due on Sunday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan saga and the location of the Taliban's political office, though he is not expected to meet with the militants.

He will then travel to Germany, to lead a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on Afghanistan alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also set to convene a high-level meeting on Afghanistan in Geneva on September 13, to focus on humanitarian assistance for the country.

The United Nations has already restarted humanitarian flights to parts of Afghanistan, while the country's flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic flights on Friday and the United Arab Emirates sent a plane carrying "urgent medical and food aid".

Western Union and Moneygram, meanwhile, said they were restarting cash transfers, which many Afghans rely on from relatives abroad to survive.

China has already confirmed it will keep its embassy in Kabul open.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

SECOND DAY OF PROTESTS

Groups of Afghan women brave Taliban-controlled streets to demand rights

Issued on: 04/09/2021 - 

A group of Afghan women protest in Kabul on September 3, 2021. 

© FRANCE 24 screengrab

Text by:FRANCE 24

A small group of Afghan women protested near the presidential palace in Kabul a day after women in the western Afghan city of Herat took to the streets in daring public demonstrations against Taliban restrictions on their right to work and seek education.

Around 20 women with microphones gathered in the heart of Kabul on Friday under the watchful eyes of Taliban gunmen, who allowed the demonstration to proceed. The protest in the Afghan capital was the second women's protest in as many days, with the other held in Afghanistan’s largest western city, Herat.

Gathering near the Arg presidential palace, the women demanded access to education, the right to return to work and a role in governing the country. "Freedom is our motto. It makes us proud,” read one of their signs.

A Taliban fighter ventured into the crowd at one point, but witnesses said he was angry at the bystanders who had stopped to watch the demonstration and not the protesters themselves.

Top Taliban leaders have promised an inclusive government and a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last ruled the country from 1996 to 2001. But as the country awaits the formation of a new government, Taliban spokesmen in recent days have admitted women are unlikely to get cabinet posts or positions of authority in the new administration.

Many Afghans remain deeply skeptical about the Taliban’s promises on gender rights and fear a rollback of the considerable gains women made over the past two decades.

On Thursday, a small group of women marched toward the office of the governor of Herat, to demand equal rights and opportunities.

“No government is stable without the support of women,” read one banner, referring to fears that the new government is unlikely to include women in leadership positions.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,” the women chanted, as Taliban fighters watched, in videos shared on social media. “We are together.”

UN says women’s rights ‘imperative’

“We are concerned about the issues of human rights in Afghanistan, notably on the rights of women,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday. “It is imperative that women have the right to work, to work in a safe environment, and those are some of the issues that have been brought to the attention of our interlocutors in Kabul and elsewhere.”

While the Taliban have said women will be able to continue their education and work, they have also vowed to impose Sharia, or Islamic, law.

Afghan women’s rights activists say they are still seeking clarity on the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law. Meanwhile, many Afghan activists have called for the international community not to grant the Taliban official recognition, which would unblock Afghanistan’s frozen bank accounts, amid fears the hardline Islamist group would crack down on women’s rights once the world’ attention has moved away.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

IT'S NOT THEIR MAYBE NUKES TO BE AFRAID OF

Commentary: Dealing with North Korea’s dangerous cyber threat

By Bruce Klinger The Heritage Foundation | Friday, September 3, 2021

North Korea appears to have restarted its nuclear reactor, enabling it to augment its ongoing production of approximately seven or more nuclear weapons per year. Pyongyang’s missiles and nuclear weapons have long garnered fear, international condemnation, and tough sanctions.

The regime’s cyber activities, however, have elicited less response, despite their repeated attacks on governments, financial institutions and industries.

What started as rudimentary denial-of-service attacks against South Korea has been expanded into a robust array of disruptive military, financial and espionage capabilities with global reach. The regime’s cyber guerrilla warfare has stolen classified military secrets, engaged in cyberterrorism, absconded with billions of dollars in money and cyber-currency, held computer systems hostage and inflicted extensive damage on computer networks.

Its targets have ranged from nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructure to telecommunications, media and corporations. Following the onset of COVID, Pyongyang even trained its cyber-weapons on pharmaceutical companies developing COVID vaccines.

Pyongyang’s cyber protection rackets refrain from attacking entities in return for payment. Its cyber retaliation squads attack those who oppose the regime or demean its leaders. The most notable of the latter was the 2014 Sony hack inflicting financial damage on the company while threatening “9/11 style” attacks against any theater showing the movie “The Interview,” which ridiculed leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea’s cyber weapons and tactics are consistent with its asymmetric military strategy. As the regime’s conventional military forces deteriorated in comparison with those of the United States and South Korea, Pyongyang developed new weapons to counter the growing gap in capabilities, including nuclear weapons, missiles and cyber operations.

North Korean strategists have designated cyberspace as “the fifth major battlefield” along with ground, air, sea and space. Kim describes cyber warfare is a “magic weapon” and an “all-purpose sword.”

North Korea’s cyber operations are also consistent with the regime’s long history of using criminal activities to acquire money. In recent years, Pyongyang prioritized financial targets to evade international sanctions and augment the regime’s coffers for its nuclear and missile programs. Cybercrimes are more lucrative and cost-effective than its longstanding criminal activities (counterfeiting and supplying slave labor) and its more recent practices of smuggling and illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil.

Compared to these other criminal enterprises, cybercrimes are quite low-risk. They are difficult to detect, and there is little likelihood of international retribution.

All of which has made cybercrime a big business in the Hermit Kingdom. North Korea was estimated to be responsible for 65 percent of all global cybercrime in 2017-2018. In August 2019, the United Nations estimated that Pyongyang had cumulatively gained $2 billion from cybercrime. Some experts now assess that North Korean cybercrimes may generate $1 billion a year — a third of the value of the nation’s exports.

North Korean hackers have proved adept at deeply penetrating even highly secure computer networks of governments, militaries, banks and international financial transaction systems, as well as critical infrastructure targets. It is certainly possible — many would say likely — that Pyongyang’s cyber warriors could inflict tremendous damage during a crisis or hostilities on the Korean Peninsula.

Nor is America safe from their predations. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that North Korea is one of the top four cyber threats capable of launching “disruptive or destructive cyberattacks” against the United States. In other words, Pyongyang has the potential to engage in cyber warfare with disproportionately massive impact — a cyber 9/11, if you will.

North Korea could paralyze critical infrastructure systems such as communications, dams, electrical grids, hospitals, nuclear power plants, supply chains and traffic-control systems. It could steal massive amounts of money or undermine the stability of the international financial system or worldwide markets. It could also conduct ransomware attacks on banks to gain money, flood the system with fraudulent transactions, or disable or destroy financial computer networks.

To date, however, neither the UN nor the U.S. have imposed many sanctions or taken other legal actions against North Korean cyber groups or the foreign countries that give them safe haven to operate and launder their ill-gotten money. The United States, in conjunction with foreign governments and the private sector, needs to augment cyber defenses and respond more forcefully to attacks.

Failure to do so enables North Korea to continue undermining the effectiveness of international sanctions and leaves the United States and its partners exposed to a potentially devastating cyberattack in the future.

A senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, Bruce Klingner previously served as the CIA’s deputy division chief for analysis of Korea.

 

Hydrogen hype: climate solution or dead-end highway?

David Suzuki  RABBLE.CA  

Around the turn of this century, hydrogen was big, especially in B.C. We were testing hydrogen fuel cell buses. Then-premier Gordon Campbell promised a "hydrogen highway" with a series of fuelling stations between Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler to enable zero-emissions bus transport -- possibly extending to California by 2010.

There is no hydrogen highway. What happened? And why is hydrogen in the news again?

Much has to do with how hydrogen is produced and used as fuel or to "carry" energy. Although it's the simplest, most abundant element in the universe, on Earth it's only found in nature combined with other elements. It must be unlocked from sources like water (H2O = two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen) or methane (CH4 = one part carbon, four parts hydrogen). Separating hydrogen from water leaves oxygen. Separating it from methane leaves carbon and carbon dioxide.

Most commercial hydrogen is obtained from fossil fuels using chemicals and heat, but water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolytic processes (with or without electricity from renewable energy). Researchers are also studying ways to split water with light or solar energy, and to use microbes such as bacteria and microalgae to produce hydrogen.

As a fuel, hydrogen requires substantial new infrastructure, whereas electric vehicle charging can be facilitated easily anywhere there's a grid. As an energy "carrier" -- that is, it's used to store or deliver energy produced from primary sources -- it must be compressed or liquefied to be transported and used, which requires energy.

Despite its drawbacks, the amount of hydrogen in methane has industry eyeing it as a potential lifeline and a way to appear "green." Methane is a byproduct of oil and coal extraction, and "natural" gas is almost entirely methane. Industry and advocates have campaigned to convince governments and the public that fossil fuel-derived hydrogen is as good as that split from water using renewables -- if carbon is removed and stored.

That's led to a distinction between "brown," "grey," "blue" and "green" hydrogen. The first is from coal. Grey is from fossil fuels without carbon capture and storage, which creates CO2 emissions. Blue is from fossil fuels with CCS. Green is split from water using renewable energy.

Grey -- mostly obtained with "steam methane reforming" -- accounts for about 95 per cent of all commercially produced hydrogen worldwide. It's inexpensive and relatively easy to produce and can use gas that would otherwise be wasted. It could become blue if the technology to store carbon byproducts were feasible and economically viable without creating additional ecological damage.

On a large scale, electrolysis is known as "power-to-gas," as electricity produced by renewable sources like wind and solar or fossil fuels is converted to hydrogen gas for transport and use. If renewable energy is used, only oxygen is emitted, making it green.

Hydrogen has many applications -- including energy-intensive long-haul freight, mining and industrial processes -- and will likely be a key component in a decarbonized future. But we need to shift the dynamic so most or all is green.

Even blue hydrogen is not emissions-free, as carbon capture doesn't entirely eliminate emissions, and they're also produced during fossil feedstock extraction, processing and transportation.

Grey hydrogen offers no climate benefit. Hydrogen linked to costly and unproven small modular nuclear is problematic on many levels and would drive costs up.

Green hydrogen can be produced at the renewable electricity generation site, or closer to end uses with grid infrastructure. It doesn't require pipelines or carbon capture infrastructure, so hydrogen electrolysis plants can often be built quickly and cost-effectively. It can be used to channel large amounts of renewable energy from the power sector into those where electrification is difficult, such as transport, buildings and industry. And it can stimulate investment and growth in renewables for electrolysis and improve energy storage capabilities. 

Green hydrogen is also a better financial bet. Blue hydrogen's costs are tied to expensive carbon capture facilities. Analysis by banking giant Morgan Stanley found plummeting wind energy prices could make government-supported green hydrogen more cost-competitive than fossil-dependent grey hydrogen by 2023.

Canada's Hydrogen Strategy identifies a "clean hydrogen economy" as "a strategic priority." It's time to recognize our competitive advantage and kick-start innovation and investment in green hydrogen. Fossil fuel–based hydrogen is an expensive dead end.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.          

August 11, 2021

Learn more at davidsuzuki.org

Image: Michael Chu/Flickr

UBC Millwrights accepts Indigenous candidates into MRCO Program in Bruce County with support from OCNI, FNPA and HAAMB

NEWS PROVIDED BY OCNI


Indigenous cohort at the Bruce Power Training Facility in Underwood along with representatives from MRCO, HAAMB, OCNI, Bruce Power and the Adult Learning Centre.

MRCO, OCNI, FNPA, and HAAMB are pleased to announce the start of a six-week training program for Indigenous people at Bruce Power’s facility in Underwood.UNDERWOOD, ONTARIO, CANADA, August 16, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 

The Millwright Regional Council of Ontario, the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI), the First Nations Power Authority (FNPA), and Huronia Area Aboriginal Management Board (HAAMB) are pleased to announce the August 9 start of a six-week training program for eight Indigenous men and women at Bruce Power’s training facility in Underwood. The training and skills-upgrade program will prepare successful candidates to become millwright apprentices and begin a career in the millwright industry.

Financial support enabling the eight candidates to participate in this valuable training program is being provided by OCNI and FNPA through a Skills Development Fund grant by the Ontario Ministry of Labor, Training, and Skills Development (MLTSD) to recruit, train and place Indigenous peoples and women in skilled trades positions in Ontario’s nuclear sector.

The OCNI/FNPA project is part of the Ontario government's new two-year $115 million Skills Development Fund (SDF) to support workers and apprentices in meeting the challenges brought on by COVID-19 and to help reduce obstacles to hiring, training, and retaining workers to participate in the province's economic recovery. The OCNI/FNPA project is opening doors for traditionally underrepresented groups, such as Indigenous people and women, to enter careers in the skilled trades while enhancing the pipeline of skilled workers required to extend the operating lives of 10 nuclear generating units at the Darlington and Bruce sites and prepare for the next generation of Small Modular Reactors in Ontario and other regions of Canada.

“Millwright Regional Council of Ontario is pleased to be working with OCNI, FNPA, the Huronia Area Aboriginal Management Board (HAAMB), and Bruce Power in recruiting candidates from local Indigenous communities and helping them acquire the skills needed to begin careers as professional millwrights in Ontario’s construction and maintenance industry” said Mark Beardsworth, Director of Operations with the Millwright Regional Council of Ontario.

“We are proud to collaborate with the Millwright Regional Council of Ontario, HAAMB, Bruce Power and FNPA on this program which we hope to replicate in Bruce Region or Durham Region in the coming months as the demand for millwrights expands to support Ontario’s nuclear life extension projects at Bruce and Darlington” added OCNI CEO Ron Oberth.

Millwright Regional Council of Ontario (MRCO) is composed of eight affiliated Local Unions of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) across the Province of Ontario. We represent thousands of women and men working as progressive cross-trained construction and maintenance professionals with exceptional skills to install, maintain, diagnose, and repair precision machinery. UBC millwrights are vital partners in industries as diverse as energy, automotive, aerospace, food processing, pharmaceuticals and more.

Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI) is an association of more than 200 Ontario-based suppliers to the nuclear industry that employ around 20,000 highly skilled and specialized engineers, technologists, and trades people. OCNI member companies design reactors, manufacture major equipment and components, and provide engineering services/support to CANDU nuclear power plants in Canada as well as to CANDU and Light Water Reactor (LWR) plants in offshore markets.
First Nations Power Authority (FNPA) is Canada’s only not-for-profit organization mandated to help grow Indigenous-led independent power producers while greening Canada’s electricity grid. We got our start with SaskPower thorough our Master Agreement in 2012 and look forward to working with other power utilities in Canada to promote economic and environmental reconciliation amongst Indigenous peoples and other Canadians.

For Further Information Contact:
Millwright Regional Council of Ontario
Duncan McIntosh, Director of Communications, dmcintosh@millwrightont.com

Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries:
Ron Oberth, President and CEO, (905) 839 -0073, ron.oberth@ocni.ca

First Nations Power Authority:
Guy Lonechild, President and CEO, 306-359-3672, glonechild@fnpa.ca

Ron Oberth
Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries
ron.oberth@ocni.ca

MORE MAYBE TECH

SC: Nuclear energy is what Canada needs to win the energy transition

25.08.2021 QP Briefing Staff 0


By Heather Chalmers and Lisa McBride

Heather Chalmers is President and CEO of GE Canada, and Lisa McBride is Canada Country Leader for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology.

In the fight against climate change, all Canadians will benefit from the increasing global recognition that nuclear power generation is key to achieving net-zero carbon emission goals. As a proven, reliable source of electricity generation that is carbon-free, nuclear energy is a game-changer in the fight against climate change. And, nuclear energy could play an important role in Canada’s post-Covid economic recovery.

Meeting Canadian and international emissions targets will require a diverse portfolio of solutions. Critically, nuclear energy must be in the decarbonization mix. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) International Energy Agency estimates in its Net Zero by 2050 report that nuclear power output will need to increase 40 per cent by 2030 and double by mid-century.

There has been no new nuclear power plant construction in Canada since the 1990s, and, since then, innovation has transformed the technology. New nuclear reactor designs are smaller and modular, lowering capital costs and speeding up installation. The latest small modular reactors (SMRs) can provide grid-scale power generation, replace diesel as a distributed power source in remote communities or be used in industry.

As much as Canadians want their electricity to be carbon-free, they want it to be safe and reliable. Today, nuclear plants have automatic shut-off safety features, and they are protected by multiple backup safety systems. Generations of Canadians have come to safely rely on nuclear energy, the only source of carbon-free electricity generation that is available 24/7, 365 days a year.



(A rendering of the GE Hitachi BWRX-300, a grid-scale SMR facility. Courtesy GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.)

SMR technology has the potential to deliver energy across Canada with that same level of certainty. Companies like GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) are already through the steep learning curve associated with designing, licensing and deploying nuclear reactor technologies. GEH has decades of experience and more than 90 per cent of its SMR design components have been tested and proven in operating nuclear reactors. Because SMRs are designed to produce reliable, carbon-free electricity 24/7, they can complement intermittent or variable sources of electricity, such as solar and wind technologies. Together, nuclear energy alongside wind, solar, and other sources of electricity generation form a balanced mix that can move Canada toward a carbon-free energy future.

Canada has the building blocks to develop a world-class supply chain for SMR technology: multi-level government support, world-class universities, an established nuclear power industry and a skilled workforce.

Canada is leading on SMR development. The federal government has released a roadmap and action plan for SMR technology development, and the provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta recently committed to work together on SMR deployment. Canada's first grid-scale SMR—among the first in the world—is slated to be in operation at the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Darlington site as early as 2028.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Bruce Power (BP), and New Brunswick Power (NB Power) have decades of experience operating nuclear reactors. Ontario-based engineering, procurement, and construction firms such as Aecon and Hatch have robust capabilities to design and build nuclear power plants. Ontario Tech, Durham College, McMaster University, the University of Saskatchewan and more are helping develop the nuclear workforce of the future.

In addition to helping achieve energy reliability and carbon-free emissions goals, the deployment of SMRs can act as an engine for job creation and economic growth in Canada. In an independent report (commissioned by GEH), PwC estimates that the deployment of a single SMR at OPG’s Darlington site could create more than 1,700 highly skilled jobs during seven years of manufacturing and construction, nearly 200 jobs sustained over a 60-year period of operation, and $2.3 billion in total GDP. Each subsequent SMR deployed in Canada – whether it be in Ontario or another province – is expected to create more than $1.1 billion in GDP.

While Ontario and Canada are poised to support the development and deployment of SMRs on a provincial and national level, the bigger opportunity is for Canada to support the energy transition to safe, reliable, carbon-free nuclear power generation around the world. With Canada’s world-class nuclear operating expertise and infrastructure project experience, Canada is well-positioned to become a global leader in the deployment of carbon-free energy technology. The federal government, in its SMR Action Plan, estimates the global SMR market will be worth $150 billion per year by 2040. PwC estimates each SMR deployed globally will generate approximately $98 million in GDP for Canada and more than $45 million in total tax revenue through the purchase of nuclear fuel, machinery, and equipment.

Canada can seize this global SMR opportunity by working together with companies like GE that know how to scale energy technology innovation for deployment globally: GE technology generates 30 per cent of the world’s power. As just one example, our LM Wind facility in Gaspe, Quebec exports wind turbine components around the world. If Canada seizes this opportunity, SMRs could play a key role in reinvigorating Canada’s post-Covid manufacturing economy as the world works toward meeting its goal of zero-carbon emission electricity.

Climate change is an urgent global priority, and nuclear energy will play a major role in helping Canada—and the rest of the world—reach its net-zero carbon emissions goals. Provincial and federal stakeholders are working to harness Canada’s capabilities to deploy SMRs at home and deliver jobs and economic benefits for generations of Canadians. Canada is on the brink of becoming a global leader in the energy transition.

The above was provided to QP Briefing by GE Canada as sponsored content.

Western University scientist asks: How can Canada bury nuclear waste?

Author of the article: Heather Rivers
Publishing date: Aug 29, 2021 • 

Western University stainless steel corrosion expert Samantha Gateman will be lending her knowledge to the effort to find a place to store used nuclear fuel bundles. (Supplied photo)

A Western University corrosion expert will lend her expertise in the quest to find a safe way to store Canada’s nuclear waste.

Corrosion scientist Samantha Gateman will begin her tenure as the new chair in radiation-induced chemistry at Western in the new year. Her research will be funded by a $1.1-million grant from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, bolstering Western’s team of chemistry, physics and engineering researchers assisting with the effort.

With a specialty in how stainless steel corrodes over time and how to stop it, Gateman said her expertise in thermal coatings will assist NWMO in a plan for Canada’s three million used radioactive fuel bundles.

About 60 per cent of Ontario’s electricity is produced at three nuclear power plants. Used fuel bundles are kept for 10 years in deep pools before they are sealed in containers for temporary storage.


“The reason my expertise is important for the NWMO is they are using a very similar type of coating technology to stop the corrosion of containers that they are putting the nuclear fuel waste inside,” Gateman said. “I will be working with the best experts in the world and using my own expertise to investigate this research.”

NWMO’s long-term plan is to contain the bundles in copper-coated containers in bentonite clay in a deep geological area. The organization has two potential sites: in crystalline rock in the township of Ignace in northwestern Ontario or sedimentary rock in the municipality of South Bruce, near Owen Sound.

A decision on the location for the depository is expected by 2023.

The depository will be built 500 metres underground with multiple barriers including coated steel containers encrusted with clay, during the thousands of years it will take to reduce their radioactivity.

Laurie Swami, president of the NWMO, says the organization has invested millions into Western’s anti-corrosion research and other projects in chemistry, engineering, physics and earth sciences over the past 20 years.

“It’s important to have a robust understanding of the underground conditions, including corrosion conditions that would exist in a deep geological repository,” Swami said.

HRivers@postmedia.com

NUCLEAR NEWS
Canada gives one for the team


As Natural Resource Canada’s nuclear director, Diane Cameron helped chart the country’s nuclear roadmap and brought the technology into the climate change conversation. Ahead of her move to OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency, she sat down with NEI contributor Jacquie Hoornweg to reflect on her career and the path forward



Diane Cameron is tracing back through her career to explain her pivot from a career destined for distinguished service in the Canadian government to take on her new role as head of the Nuclear Technology Development and Economics Division at the OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).

2 September 2021

Her journey has been powered by her intellect but as she speaks, it’s clear her career choices have been driven by her heart. Her internal compass points her toward solutions to climate change at a time when the planet is under duress from the strains of its effects.

One important contributor to climate change mitigation is low-carbon energy. Lots of it. One way to generate it, nuclear power.

Cameron joined NEA earlier this year following seven years as director of the Nuclear Division for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). Before taking that role, she says, she had seen increasing evidence of the powerful role nuclear could play in climate change mitigation.

In May 2014, six months before the Canadian government announced the final piece in its restructuring of Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL), Cameron moved posts from Canada’s foreign affairs department into the nuclear division directorship, an open role left unfilled for years prior. Her time in the role serves as a map of the country’s nuclear programme itself, during that time.

The department had been working in quiet mode as the federal government undertook the review and restructuring of AECL, the crown corporation that gave the world CANDU technology and operated several national nuclear facilities, including the national research lab at Chalk River where the Nuclear Research Universal (NRU) reactor operated for more than 70 years before a well-earned retirement in 2018.

As Cameron arrived, the restructuring, which included sale of the crown corporation’s nuclear reactor division to SNC-Lavalin and the formation of government-owned, company-operated, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, was just wrapping up. As Cameron describes it, her role was to chart a new direction into unknown territory.

“It was sort of carte blanche, almost. I had to rebuild the team essentially from scratch, which was a challenge but also an opportunity, obviously,” says Cameron. “Every little growth step was pitching a vision to senior management of what we could accomplish; pitching an idea of a role we could play and incrementally building a team.”

Fast forward to February 2021 when Cameron left NRCan to join the NEA. The NRCan team had grown to 24. But the U
V heft was not just in the head count. The team accomplished milestones on the national and international front, which have set the table for Canada’s nuclear sector’s future, should federal and provincial governments choose to pursue it.

In Canada, constitutionally nuclear energy falls within the jurisdiction of the federal government. The government’s role spans across research and development, as well as regulation of nuclear materials and activities. The government’s nuclear priorities, and related legislation, are in health, safety, security and the environment.

However, the decision as to which technologies to invest in for electricity generation rests with the country’s 13 provinces and territories.

To date, only two provinces use nuclear power though one of them, Ontario, is the country’s largest province. In in both Ontario and New Brunswick, nuclear is a major contributor to the grid. So, while nuclear accounts for only 15 per cent of Canada’s generation capacity, for more than 40 per cent of Canadians, the primary source of electricity is nuclear power. The nuclear industry hopes to expand on that. Cameron and her team believed there were some important reasons to help them.

“The nuclear sector supports many different types of priorities: economic and innovation as well as environment, climate change and public health,” says Cameron. “The nuclear sector can support a range of different national priorities, so it was a question of starting to tell the story and framing Canada’s nuclear story (first) within the government’s other priorities.”

Illustrative of their progress, has been several speeches from the sector’s top elected official, NRCan Minister Seamus O’Regan who has delivered some of the most bullish speeches about nuclear in recent memory. He’s gone so far as to say, Canada cannot meet its net-zero carbon emissions without nuclear energy.

By the mid-2015s, with AECL’s nuclear division privatised and its national research programme and liabilities under private-sector management, NRCan’s nuclear division, could have coasted into babysitting mode.

Cameron, however, is not that type of bureaucrat. Leading up to and early in her tenure with NRCan, Cameron says, the evidence and modelling increasingly demonstrated the essential role nuclear could play in addressing climate change. She recognised the importance of contributing that evidence in broader policy conversations. In her role as director, she says, it was her job to move that forward because public service boils down to two over-riding points, fearless advice and loyal implementation.

“The fearless advice is around bringing in a non-partisan, non-partial evidence-based analysis and then (based on that), advice. Part of my role as a public servant was to make sure I surfaced and shone a light on a part of the conversation, that, not only in Canada but around the world was pretty quiet,” she says. “Many, many of these conversations were silent on nuclear. It is not as if they brought the nuclear option or evidence to the conversation and took a values-based decision against it. It was just silent. I saw that my role as a public servant, very clearly, was to ensure nuclear was positioned in those conversations.”

Cameron’s background lent itself well to the task. When she joined NRCan, she had clocked seven years in Foreign Affairs serving as deputy director for trade and environment, from which she brought knowledge and contacts. She also brought a unique pairing of technical and social expertise.

Cameron earned her undergraduate degree in systems engineering with a minor in society, technology and values, the latter reflecting a deep personal interest in social justice, likely inherited from her father and mentor, a professor in social work.

After several years working for a consultancy in Princeton New Jersey, where she honed skills in business management and efficiency optimisation, she went back to school and earned a master’s in technology policy from MIT, a programme targeted to people like Cameron who want to marry technical skills with policy development.

MIT also gave her an introduction to nuclear energy and the role it could play as a tool to combat climate change. While at MIT, she worked under Ernest J. Moniz, who would later serve as US Secretary of Energy from 2013-2017.

While Cameron came to the NRCan role already understanding the value of nuclear, it was while she was there that she learned about Canada’s important contribution to the technology development. “In every objective measurable way,” she says, “Canada’s nuclear industry is a nuclear rock star.”

In early days in role, as she investigated the terrain, Cameron says, “I learned about the talent in Canada, the Canadian story. I was meeting with Canadians working in this sector and their accomplishments, yet the public policy discussions were not giving this a voice.”

She says she observed that many people in the provinces where nuclear is generated did not appreciate the benefits it delivers. “I think we owe it to have a much more public policy debate with Canadians about some of the really tough choices ahead of us.”

Perhaps driven by that conviction, during her tenure, Cameron was tireless in a campaign of personal appearances to spread information about the role of nuclear and the data that supported that.

Darroch Harrop, an early recruit who joined Cameron’s team in 2015, jokes that he and his colleagues tried to count how many webinars, seminars, podcasts and conferences she participated in but gave up the futile exercise.

He says, as impressive as Cameron’s commitment to these appearances, it is her ability to build coalitions and “get people to sit around the table” that helped drive the visibility and measurable progress during her time at NRCan.

“She is an alliance builder,” he says. “She finds the win-wins. The number of perspectives she brings together is huge.”

Dan Brady, deputy director for the nuclear division says Cameron’s ability to work inside government, across multiple ministries to create visibility for nuclear has been important in moving the conversation beyond energy industry stakeholders and has helped break log jams to get nuclear onto broader policy agendas. He talks about initiatives Cameron created specifically to prompt conversations, including one that drove required briefings for every deputy minister across government, consequently requiring the staffers to also get up to speed on the file.
Tracking the progress

An early visible indicator of the work going on in Cameron’s department arose in the government’s response to a 2017 UV Standing Committee for Natural Resources report Nuclear at a Crossroads. The report reflected the status of nuclear in Canada, with the AECL restructuring behind it, the end of operation of the NRU reactor just in front of it and the end of operation at Canada’s oldest commercial nuclear site, Pickering Nuclear (3100MW), coming up fast with no new-build CANDU planned to replace it. Three other Canadian nuclear stations, Darlington and Bruce Power in Ontario
and New Brunswick Power’s Point Lepreau station had either undergone or were committed to moving forward with refurbishments. The refurbishments represent a massive investment in nuclear infrastructure. But as the industry considered development beyond the refurbishments, a question hung in the air, “What’s next?”

From the Standing Committee report, five themes emerged including the importance of the federal government as a partner, the value of nuclear energy in addressing climate change, the need for cross-sector partnerships and the spectrum of policy areas where nuclear can be positively impactful.

From these themes, came a series of recommendations. They included strengthening the government’s work with industry, Indigenous governments and communities, as well as other levels of government and the sector. They reinforced the government’s role in supporting research and development, working with international partners, support for Canadian technology development and commercialisation, strengthening public education and training, and, importantly, support for new technologies and the development of small modular reactors.

The report gave Cameron’s team a mandate and from its response, a blueprint emerged that would serve to guide their work through the remainder of her tenure.
Canada’s SMR Roadmap

A year after the Standing Committee report, the 2018, multi-stakeholder authored Canadian SMR Roadmap was released followed in December 2020 by release of Canada’s Action Plan. The two encapsulate almost every theme from the Standing Committee’s report.

The roadmap engaged more than 180 individuals representing 55 organisations across 10 sectors and subsectors, including multiple levels of government, civil society, academia and industry. The Action Plan includes chapters from 117 organisations. Both used a pan-Canadian approach to bring together disparate voices of many interests to create a common vision for development of a Canadian approach to small modular reactor development. An outcome that can be traced back to the SMR Roadmap and related work by government and industry working together, includes the 2021 agreement by four provinces – Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan – to collaborate on SMR deployment as part of a strategy to meet Canada’s net-zero targets. In a marrying of technical and social intersection, the Roadmap brought in voices from Canadians who had never been engaged in conversations about nuclear energy and helped start meaningful engagement on low-carbon infrastructure and the relevance to their lives.

Cameron herself describes the roadmap as “impactful in Canada and globally” and truly reflective of a “coalition of the willing.” The work also provided an opportunity to validate the economic assumptions about the value of SMR development in Canada. One assessment by a third-party organisation indicated the global impact in the ballpark of CA$300 billion by 2040.

Cameron’s role in the roadmap was pivotal, says Fred Dermarkar, president of AECL and former president of CANDU Owners Group.

“Diane was the key driver behind the SMR roadmap,” he says. “She created a vision that inspired politicians, government, industry, academia and the international community. For example, when France announced the launching of its SMR project at the IAEA GC in September 2019, the CEO of EDF referenced Canada’s SMR Roadmap.”

Canada on the world stage

In fact, some point to Cameron’s work to bring Canada more prominently into the international community as one of her most significant accomplishments.

Explaining the international emphasis, Cameron says, “An important input on Canadian policy work is to be able to turn to international peer-reviewed studies, modelling, forecasting and analysis,” and conversely, she says, “Canadian expertise contributes to international knowledge.” As well she adds, being part of the international community “also showcases Canada’s expertise and provides it a source of influence.”

Further, this work contributed to her personal desire to “normalize” nuclear in the climate change conversation.

In 2018, Canada, the United States and Japan teamed together to form the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future initiative that introduced nuclear into the annual Clean Energy Ministerial talks. Following a “modest side event” at the Copenhagen CEM talks, in 2019, nuclear was fully integrated when CEM was held in Vancouver. By then, nine countries had signed on to NICE Future.

As CEM 2019 host, Cameron says, “We wanted to ensure nuclear literacy and we wanted nuclear to be part of the main conversation.” Several strategies were employed to fully integrate nuclear into the forum, and the measure of success, says Cameron, was the fact that for anyone attending CEM for the first time, “it would have looked unremarkable to have nuclear at those tables,” which was exactly the point.
A different form of public service

There is a spiritual connection with the number seven. It is said seven years represents a cycle in our lives and a sense of completeness.

In her seventh year in role, Cameron left NRCan for the NEA, taking the work she’d done on a national level to apply it in a global role. As she stood, straddled between the two roles, she said it was a “moment of reflection” as she set on the path where she believes she can make the most impact in the fight against climate change.

She hopes the various levels of government, back in Canada, will act on the early promise in SMR development and together with industry can solidify nuclear’s contribution to meeting Canada’s net-zero targets and socio-economic goals both domestically and globally.

Internationally, Cameron sees COP26 as the next test. Whether nuclear can achieve “unremarkable” status as a natural player at the table remains to be seen. But chances are good, if you are in Glasgow, you will see the NEA’s new head of nuclear making a very evidence-based case as to why it should be considered in the energy mix.

Jacquie Hoornweg is Managing partner at Querencia Partners