By Michael Bueckert

Our society is running out of energy. But in the crucial quest to find the right energy source for Saskatchewan’s future, our hands have been tied. The ‘powers that be’ have chosen nuclear power as their preferred fuel of the future, and have pushed aside debate on other options. We need to revise how we discern nuclear energy’s appropriateness in our communities, by drawing on the wisdom of the agrarian author Wendell Berry:

“I am moreover a Luddite, in what I take to be the true and appropriate sense. I am not ‘against technology’ so much as I am for community. When the choice is between health of a community and technological innovation, I choose the health of the community. I would unhesitantly destroy a machine before I would allow the machine to destroy my community.”

Recently, I attended a public consultation on uranium development in Saskatoon. These meetings are being brought to a dozen Saskatchewan communities to gauge public support for the Uranium Development Partnership report, a report commissioned by the provincial government and spear-headed largely by industry representatives. The biased report, an appeal for expanding mining, enrichment of uranium, and ultimately nuclear power, is clearly not the independent assessment of Saskatchewan’s energy future that we need. The consultation process is flawed; the question posed is not whether nuclear development will occur, but how. This means that a wider range of options, including energy efficiency and renewable sources, are essentially off the table.

The positive side of the consultation process is that, across the province, most in attendance have been critical of the proposed development. Citizens have been very vocal in their concerns for their communities, and I picked up on two alternative options that came up again and again; 1) reducing overall energy consumption through voluntary simplification and energy efficiency, and 2) decentralising power sources, with small-scale renewable energy projects.

Too often, these voices have been dismissed by nuclear proponents as “irrational fear-mongers,” or anti-nuclear lobbyists trying to disrupt the natural and inevitable flow of industry, to the detriment of hard-working citizens everywhere. But the truth is that alternatives to nuclear power are not being discussed seriously, and the consultation process itself seems to have the aim of silencing any meaningful debate.

Further, it seems that the pro-nuclear position requires a heck of a lot of faith. It requires too much faith in the future technological development of waste disposal (we still don’t know how to dispose of radioactive waste safely); faith that our reserves of uranium will last long enough (some predictions range from 40 to 80 years); faith that the health impact of exposure is minimal to the environment and therefore to the health of our own bodies; faith in the ability to recover the costs involved in start-up; faith that the industry will not be used to further nuclear weapon proliferation; and ultimately faith in our ability to avoid ecological collapse without a reduction in growth.

This is a faith that I do not have. As I was reminded by several pro-nuclear speakers, capitalism requires investors to take risks, and we must do so if Saskatchewan is to remain competitive. This seems absurd, as the potential benefits of nuclear power are so hastily given priority over the security of our community’s well-being.

We must resist the temptation to put economics before health. We must refuse to let industry proponents dismiss legitimate claims as “irrational” and fear-based. And we must continue to champion the needs of our community, that is, Creation itself, against the needs of an abstract future economy and the needs of our public and private corporations. I hope that the public outcry against the uranium consultation process in Saskatchewan will lead to a meaningful examination of the impact of nuclear development, so that we can finally set our priorities straight.

Michael Bueckert is an intern at MCC Saskatchewan and a student at Canadian Mennonite University.