Letters: Nuclear waste still major issue for Sask. power plan

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Hats off to the authors of the recent op-ed, “Tobacco settlement with provinces has a dark side,” who rightly criticize a settlement proposal with the tobacco industry that relies on future sales revenues, an argument that rests upon a consideration of future generations being exposed to an addictive and harmful product.

Similarly, our provincial and federal governments have signed on to an extremely expensive and dubious technology to be paid for with taxpayer dollars.

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Only a decade or so ago we were being told that Saskatchewan had a “moral” obligation to store the extremely hazardous radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants; now we are being told that this same waste (smaller in size but more highly refined and thus more lethal) is of no real consequence.

While temporary storage containers “prove” nuclear waste can be adequately managed, Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization is still searching for a permanent geological repository.

So not only are there no working prototypes for the new wave of nuclear reactors, there are no permanent waste storage sites and, consequently, no plans for a rolling stewardship that must be in place for thousands of years.

Such plans must be 100 per cent foolproof. With respect to nuclear waste, like operational power plants, there are no acceptable risks when it comes to accidents and mistakes.

Apparently, taxpayers are once again being taken for rubes and bumpkins by politicians who have not yet done their homework on this issue.

Wayne Turner, Saskatoon

Sask. could add more corporate classes

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With the recent announcement by the Saskatchewan Party government that Teine Energy has been contracted to teach oil and gas to high school students, we think this is an opportunity to change the curriculum in a much more corporatist way. How about these courses?

Uranium (taught by Cameco), clearcutting (taught by CLC Logging), corporate agriculture (taught by Viterra, Archer Daniels Midland, Bayer or Nutrien), potash (taught by Nutrien or BHP), firearms safety (taught by Jeremy Harrison).

Of course, there would be room for advanced courses beyond these beginner courses. As well, to avoid too much propaganda, consideration should be given to a course in ethics (to be taught by Premier Scott Moe).

However, to make room in the curriculum, some courses would have to be deleted.

These deleted subjects could include: art and music (simply frills), English (spellcheck should handle spelling and grammar and no one reads any more), history (who cares about the past?), mathematics (calculators will do the job) and science (hoaxes and conspiracy theories are better).

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Our Saskatchewan Party government has taken an important first step to privatizing our entire education system and to make sure that we educate our children to mindlessly adopt corporate propaganda, rather than critical thinking.

Don Kossick and Tim Quigley, Saskatoon

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