Women encouraged to help promote nuclear power in Alberta

Source: Doug Collie| · MOUNTAIN VIEW TODAY · | March 14, 2024

Alberta Innovates staff member's team working on ways to make Alberta a clean energy hub.

Nuclear power is a good option to generate clean energy in Alberta but there’s not enough support for it yet, so women are encouraged to get involved, said the keynote speaker at a recent event in Olds.

Vanessa White, executive director of clean technology, clean resources for Alberta Innovates, spoke during the Mountain View & Neighbours Women in Business awards luncheon, held March 8 at the Pomeroy Inn & Suites.

“We want to create a safe space where industry players can talk about, learn about nuclear without some of that potential reputational or financial risk of saying they're looking at nuclear before the public is ready to hear that collaboration around public perceptions,” White said.

White said according to a recent survey undertaken by the Angus Reid opinion research firm, 43 per cent of women in Alberta were supportive of nuclear power and 38 per cent were not.

The survey also found that 70 per cent of men between 18 and 25 were supportive of that form of power. However, she said among men older than that age group, support for nuclear power fell to “the mid 60s.”

“So why is there that deviation? And how are we going to fix it,” White asked.

“We're going to fix it by bringing Women In Nuclear to Alberta (WiN, a group that advocates for the use of nuclear and radiation technologies in Canada)."