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The images could scarcely be breezier; the double take more, well, shocking.
Over the past two years, millions of Canadians have tuned in to a soothing corporate advocacy campaign of almost unrivalled effectiveness, the centrepiece of which has been a series of slick commercials touting that old bugbear, nuclear power, as "clean, affordable and reliable."
Sharing the airwaves with newscasts carrying disquieting reports about nuclear tests in North Korea and Iran, and nuclear-weapons smuggling networks in Pakistan, the ads featured a series of words floating against a blue sky. A woman's voice coolly rhymed off some basic factoids about nuclear energy as the letters flipped and flew off the screen, allowing one word to morph into the next. "If you are like most Canadians, you are unclear about nuclear power," she said. "Well, let's clear things up." The take-away message: that nukes aren't scary and they won't poison the atmosphere.
The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) has spent millions of dollars on these elegant spots, produced by a Toronto ad agency best known for its work for multinational pharmaceutical firms. And CNA is not the only nuclear player trumpeting its merits. Since 2004, Ontario Power Generation—the government-owned utility that generates 70% of Ontario's electricity—has hiked spending tenfold on its own pro-nuclear ads.
Duncan Hawthorne, CEO of Bruce Power, is shopping for reactors. Areva's new model is 'real,' he notes; the new Candu isn't, yet (Lorne Bridgeman)
The timing of the ads is no coincidence. Public concern about air quality, blackouts and climate change has created a choice moment that nuclear lobbyists are hustling to exploit. And it seems to be working. Never mind the inconvenient truths about radioactive waste, cost overruns and the proliferation of weapons-grade uranium. A generation after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl—and a decade after a third of Ontario's reactors were mothballed—the repackaged nuclear energy sector has deftly wrapped itself in the mantle of green power and is poised for explosive growth.
Coming off yet another breathless, hazy summer, on Oct. 10 Ontario voters will pass judgment on Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, whose record in office includes a landmark decision to pour billions into new and refurbished nuclear reactors over the next decade or so. The nuclear industry's savvy lobbying and PR blitzes have had a strong influence on McGuinty & Co., says Candu expert Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal College in Calgary: "[The McGuinty government] had to be pushed, and they had to be pushed in a number of ways." Nuclear advocates have sought to convince the government of the environmental upside of their technology, while seasoning that upbeat message with stern warnings about failing to provide enough electricity for a power-hungry province. That done, the industry has now set its sights on New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, which are both considering how to expand their electricity supply. Meanwhile, a Calgary firm is poised to develop at least one private $6-billion reactor for Alberta's oil patch, which uses huge amounts of power in the oil sands.
The nuclear renaissance, which comes after a long period of almost no growth, is a global phenomenon. The International Atomic Energy Agency predicts 60 new plants will be built by 2020; industry estimates put the figure closer to 100.
National and international regulators are streamlining licensing processes. Uranium prices have been soaring, setting off a speculative mining boom. And the reactor manufacturing industry has restructured itself into a formidable trio of two-headed giants: Westinghouse/Toshiba, Areva/Mitsubishi and General Electric/Hitachi are girding to compete for mega-deals as dozens of utilities in North America, Europe and Asia cut orders for the next generation of reactors.
Now for the domestic twist. With its PR and lobbying campaign, the Canadian industry has won the battle. But now it may lose the war. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), the 4,700-employee Crown corporation that has designed and built 33 Candu reactors in Canada and abroad, faces the prospect of being shut out of Ontario's nuclear building campaign, or even being sold. How's that for a short circuit?
Murray Elston, the CNA's current president and CEO, is the man responsible for the Canadian chapter of the nuclear industry's renaissance. He arrived at the CNA's inauspicious Ottawa office in 2004 with three noteworthy details on his resumé. First, as a former Liberal health minister in Ontario, he was one of Dalton McGuinty's earliest backers during the party's 1996 leadership race. Second, Elston's previous gig was as chief tout in Canada for the multinational drug companies, which had all sorts of image issues. Lastly, unlike his predecessors, he didn't come from inside the nuclear industry.
A slightly wary 57-year-old with a boyish face and the bland-works disposition common to many Ontario pols, Elston did his ministerial stint in David Peterson's government, which voted to complete construction on the $14-billion Darlington nuclear station east of Toronto. It opened in phases during the early 1990s amid intense controversy over its cost.
