Nuclear Industry Ads Challenged as Misleading

The Canadian Nuclear Association's $1.7 million ad campaign touting nuclear power as "clean, reliable and affordable" is the target of a false-advertising complaint filed by a coalition of environmental, health and church groups. "Our concern is that the nuclear industry's advertising budget and approach distorts objective decisions ... about the future of [Canada's] electricity system," explained Julia Langer of WWF-Canada. The formal complaint, filed with Canada's Competition Bureau, says that presenting nuclear power as "clean" is misleading, given hazardous byproducts "from the mining of uranium fuel" and the radioactive waste generated by nuclear reactors, which "remains dangerous for thousands of years." Dennis Bueckert reports, "Canada still lacks a plan for permanent disposal of nuclear waste although the problem has been under study for many years." The Competition Bureau "receives 40,000 complaints a year," and does not investigate every one.