Thursday 8 September 2011

Change Your Windows, Not the Reactor: How to Save Energy and Create Jobs


What is more energy effective, renovating a nuclear reactor or insulating houses?

A new study by the Quebec group Ecohabitation says that refurbishing Hydro Québec's one reactor to prepare it for 25 more years of service would cost more than putting new Energy Star doors and windows in a quarter of Quebec's home, or 900,000 residences. The resulting savings in energy would annually equal the power produced by reactor.

What's more. this green intiative would provide thosuands of jobs, both for door and window installation and for their manufacture.

Now, it's not clear that this kind of calculation for other reactors would result in such striking arguments of sustainable development, but it certainly is worth considering as we look at how to get ot of the energy mess we're in.

Photo: Gentilly 2 amid the fields--a shot that wants you to equate nuclear with green, despite the reality.

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