page 2, March 2, 1977 - North Shore News “The splitting of the atom has. changed everything, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”’: That. was how Albert Einstein, the father of atomic. the Canadian -political/gov-. energy, foresaw the way that his discoveries were mental process that our | to be used. His warning should be heed by us all. : And we Canadians can proudly say that, for once, we don’t have to take a back seat to anyone. No, when it comes to drifting to catas- trophe through the misuse of the energy of the atom we’re right there in the driver’s seat.. The Canadian gov- ernment has invested billions of tax dollars into the development of the CANDU. reactor, with its dangerous and potentially disastrous technology. The government expects to see 112 of these reactors in operation in Canada by the turn of the century, supplying a major portion of our energy. It chanta he acked whether - BE SRA REEED WW COR ER Ws VV ES Www such large amounts of money invested in. nuclear technol- ~ ogy might not be better spent. Studies by the Science Council of Canada indicate that simply by increasing the efficiency of our -present energy use we can save more energy in the next twenty- five years than the nuclear plants could generate in that time. The national energy research budget is almost all committed to nuclear sour- | ces. We could—we should— spend this money developing the means to tap the almost infinite supplies of energy _ from the sun, the wind and the tides as well as from ‘other safe, sources. NOT CHEAP And, of course, as we have said in this space many ' times, if we simply learn to be more efficient and use less energy, energy supplies could cope with our needs for a long, long time. essary to _ Operator - non-polluting » our present Atomic power is not cheap. Capital costs of reactors are high and rising much faster than the general infiationary ‘level. Reactors last only 25 years and then must be de-commissioned. And . the problem of how. to store the’ dangerous and highly. toxic. ~waste material -from the reactors for thousands of years simply has not been answered. Each reactor pro- duces, in one year, more radioactive garbage than a ‘thousand Hiroshima bombs. Imagine the measures nec- protect every reactor radioactive garbage dump. The record of the nuclear a industry, like any other industry, is full of examples of manufacturing - defects, errors,. shoddy workmanship and incompe- tent management. The dif- - ference ‘plants and most others is that .. “between — nuclear nuclear accidents can_ kill tens of thousands of people ‘and poison vast areas of the earth—-forever, The decision-making pro-— cess involving nuclear ener- gy bypasses our system. The Atomic’ Energy | Control Board (AECB) has neither the mandate nor the muscle to approve or disapprove of nuclear plants. It licenses them and (theoretically) reg- ulates the entire operation from the extraction of the ores to the burial of the wastes. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AEC), with its vested interest in marketing CANDU reactors, exists in a very close relationship with the body that is supposed to be governing it. VERIFIED CIRCULATION 46,000 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511 CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337 | Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Bob Graham/Managing Editor Noel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Photos Ells- worth Dickson/Production Marna Leiren/Advertis- ing Kristi Vidler/Classified Berni Hilliard/Circula- tion Yvonne Chapman/Administration Barbara Haywood/Accounts Sylvia Sorensen. North ‘Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent community newspaper qualified under Schedulg@am Paragraph 111 of the Ey published each Wednegiamae shore Pree Press Lid. an ‘and ol, Part ffi, fee lax Act, is me the North door on the North Shope Second Class Mall Rg coe ENTIRE CONTENT SHORE FREE PR} o0R- Co Py - ~— site: and every. CMM ic | PUBLIC INTEREST _ “IGNORED © ‘It is an unfortunate fact of regulatory boards and agen- cies tend to -identify - so strongly with the organiza-— tions that they are supposed to be regulating and over-— seeing that they often lose sight of their role as protectors “of the (public interest and become flak- runners for their charges. ‘The AECB-has no full-time.. inspectors on duty, and sixty percent of its staff come from | AEC. Until recently the same “man: headed both organi- zations! AEC cannot be trusted to play. up its own_ short- comings. Indeed, it does a quite the opposite, and has a _ large staff of experts on hand to give it the semblance of authority it needs to sway the public and the politicians toa blind acceptance of nuclear ¢£ technology, meanwhile with-. holding any misgivings. on - the groundsthat they are’too technical to be understood.’ The electrical utilities can- not be relied upon to decide - the merits of nuclear tech- ‘nology, either. Their custom - is to define their interests in . terms of more energy (al- | ways!), and to then reduce the whole problem to a set of numbers to be juggled with, ignoring the real issues such as environmental destruction by hydro projects and the nuclear issues mentioned here. . | “EXPERTS” DECIDE Even Parliament has no _ say in matters of nuclear policy. Decisions are made by cabinet ministers, who are on the scene for a short while and then move on. They rely entirely on ‘experts’ for their information, and. these ‘experts’ are, of course, the very people most committed to expanding nuclear tech- nology. The cabinet minis- ters, one can speculate, are. probably reluctant to buck the advice of ‘experts,’ especially in matters that are so technical. Our dollars continue to be— poured into an_ industry fraught with peril, for which _ there is little demonstrated need. We even export these monsters, and through re- markable coincidence, the countries that .we are export- ing to seem to be all inventing nuclear weapons for themselves shortly after they receive our ‘peaceful’ nuclear power generating stations. . Barbara Ward says: ‘‘Men are not making a simple calculation of ‘gain or con- venience. They are confront-: ing their own survival, that of their children, and the whole race of man.”’ The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (suite 104, 2127 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, B. C.. phone 263- 7831) is attempting to bring this issue forward. They need some help. by Peter Speck . | | . A recent independent survey of ~ 1,225 Nerth Shore residents, commis- sioned by the North _ Vancouver Business. Asseciation, showed the North Shore News to be way ahead as “the North Shore’s ‘most _ popular “newspaper. Almost half the. respondents ( (48 per cent) said they were ‘‘more inclined to -read’’ the North Shore News. The | Citizen followed with 40 per cent of the votes, and The Times trailed with 12 _ per cent. Now, we'd like to know why ; -- and - we're offering a prize of $100 to find out. Plus two runner-up prizes of $50 and $25 respectively. HERE’S HOW THE CONTEST WORKS . The box below contains. 20 questions _ about our regular news items, features and columns. Simply put a tick in the appropriate column against each NEWS ITEMS. . . * Local accidents, fires, crime, court cases, etc.. wecccvcccccccesccccecces eoctecccccgeccccscccees * North Shore councils and ‘municipal government ACLIVETLES..o-eecncsorseeeeessorse * Sports news sand FEPOTtS...eseceeeieesesseeees _ * News of community events, projects, etc. upcoming community @VENS]....cccescceoee, a * General news items [Greater Vancouver, : -B. C., Canada]...........scccsecsessseesesennes profiles.......... eee TOTTI TITTITTTTTTITiTi irri iret) FEATURES * ‘Inquiring Reporter’? [weekly mini-poll of North Shore opinions on curent topics, - with photos of respondents]...............0 . *. Theatre and entertainment... Coevenesesooses * Food, recipes, household and gardening * Letters to the Editor.......cccccesecseoeczcces * Horoscope. ......sccccccsccccccscccccscncacencece * Arts and crafts features....cc..cccscccccesses REGULAR COLUMNS * **Speckulations’?,........ccccccsosesssssesees * George Alexander.......scccccccssccesesescees * Hayden Stewart . [personal counsclling].........cccccscccsseces * “Back Porch’ ..sscssesesersseseeessserseeceenes - News? . NAME ADDRESS “4 if . Buaieee&ad& & ; AGE-BRACKET [PLEASE TICK]: UNDER 36-50 "CLIP HERE 7 APPRECIATE - con ‘“sWhat’s Going On”’ [weekly calendar of. . * Human interest features and personality me * “Girl of the Week”? photo........scccccceseee, ALTICIES.....ccccccccccccccccccccccscvespeccccccncce ‘ * Travel FEALUTES......ccecccccccccccreccsscvonens, * Cross word.....cccccccccccccsscceveccccccccscenccs | Sn EnEERDERnreneeeneeeeneneeeee question — -- “appreciate or..enjoy”’ are ‘‘not interested’’. a When all entries have- been received, we will arrange the various items in order of popularity (and as shown: fy the- preferences you put down... unpopularity!), ~ Then, we will award a prize of $100 - to the first reader whose ‘individual entry matches -- or comes closest to -- the overall average of opinions. ‘The two runner-up prizes. of $50 and $25 will go to the readers. whose entries come next closest to the average in the order that. entries are received. : - ; All entries must reach ovr office nc not later than Wednesday, March 9, 1977. The decision of the judges is final, and - no correspondence regarding the contest will be undertaken. DISLIKE ‘OR ENJOY | qoo00r ” sooocoool on t { oooo oonooo0000 (ooo goooooo00o qooo coAeoooo0 What feature or features would you like to see ADDED to the North Shore After putting a tick in one of the three columns: against all of the above 20 questions, enter your name, address, age-bracket and phone number below, clip out the complete box and mail or deliver to: “Typical Reader Contest’, North Shore News, 202-1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2n4 CLOSING DATE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1977. ee NCLCA LENT frat ctsnsemramtnemtn te tenmreaetntpettedderntenenaantansiidssumeteanneinadetanninninneeniamnininttn PHONE 25 25-35 . showing, whether you » “dislike” or, INTERESTED LI