Canada's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Introduction to Canada's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Canada's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Canada does not have any weapons of mass destruction to our knowledge. This is because first, it is against United Nations convention that Canada has signed. The other is economically; Canada can not support a nuclear weapon. Canada does not manufacture weapons of mass destruction or store them. However, Canada does create and sell CANDU reactors to countries around the world. Such nuclear reactors are designed to generate electricity for home and industrial use. However the waste material from these reactors could be used by nations or terrorists to produce nuclear weapons.
CANDU 6 Reactor, Wolsung, Korea
During an interview with Joe Jordan, we discovered that Canada does not have any weapons of mass destruction. However Joe Jordan did discuss Candu reactors with the group.
Joe Jordan: CANDU reactor is the reactor of choice. If you look at the origins of the nuclear programs in some of these countries, our ends are not necessarily clean. We haven't sold a CANDU in a while, the last one was turkey was looking at one but the sale never went through because it was an earthquake zone.
Jennie: With the situation now, if someone came to you asking for a CANDU reactor would you sell it to them.
Joe
Jordan: It is very Tightly controlled now. One of the issues that is keeping
Canada from making a tuff decision is, the economics of nuclear power
aren't there. It's not a power source that at the end of the day is necessarily
attractive economically. Because you have the disposal of cores and things
that cause problems, it's very regulated. Who and what you can sell to
whom. But there is a lot of money being made in armaments. We are not
a big export.
Text
by Jennie Brundige
Earth photo
used with permission from NASA
Graphic provided
by http://www.sdl.on.ca/what.html
Athens District
High School