Energy Options for New Brunswick

Publisher:  Energy Options Committee of the Maritime Energy Coalition, Canada
Year Published:  1977
Pages:  22pp   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX426

This brief has two parts. The first of these looks at the "need" for nuclear power in New Brunswick, while the second considers other ueseful sources of energy which could be tapped. At the end of each section, specific recommendations are made to government.

Abstract: 
The Maritime Energy Coalition includes thirteen citizens' organizations in New Brunswick. Their brief has two parts. The first of these looks at the "need" for nuclear power in New Brunswick, while the second considers other ueseful sources of energy which could be tapped. At the end of each section, specific recommendations are made to government.

The brief points out that the level of increase in energy use forecast in the early seventies has not been realized and, in fact, there has been an actual decrease in some cases. All the arguments advanced for the urgency of radically increased energy facilities falls flat against these recent statistics. Some of this change in energy use has been produced by extraordinary increase in the cost of energy production in the last few years. This factor is of major importance in the evalution of a nuclear power station such as that projected for Point Lepreau, N.B. Besides the doubling of cost estimates for basic construction at the site, there seems to be need for construction of a back-up unit. One must also add in transmission costs, repairs, storage facilities, decommissioning costs, yearly operating costs, and interest charges on construction loans. This will combine to put a debt of several billion dollars on the people of N.B. through its government.

According to the brief the basic additional service needed to meet electrical needs centers around covering peak use period. A variety of similar options for covering this need through largely existing facilities indicate little need for an undertaking as immense as the Point Lepreau plant.

In the second part of the brief, energy conservation is underlined as the number one priority and a variety of practical options which could be introduced more widely in the province are explored. These incude total energy systems which make use of the 70 per cent waste energy of any thermal or nuclear plant as well as heat pumps such as are being used to heat Scotia Square in Halifax. Besides this, standard alternate sources such as wood, wind, sun, methane are examined for their practicel utility in the economy of New Brunswick.

Periodically the Coalition produce a tabloid, Nuclear Reaction, at 25 cents a copy with reductions for bulk.