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A chilling reminder of the Cold War with Russia is being removed from the majority of homes in a west Highland village. At the height of the tension, the Royal Navy established a berth for nuclear submarines in Broadford Bay, Skye, and therefore had to consider the consequences to the population should there have been any incident causing a radioactive leak into the local environment. One of the precautions taken was to issue everyone living within 1.25 miles of the berth with anti-radiation potassium iodate tablets (Pits) that would help prevent contamination of the thyroid gland.

A community group has sprung up to fight a proposal to build two nuclear reactors in the industrial area of Haldimand County. Bruce Power, which operates a nuclear power plant on Lake Huron near Port Elgin, is seeking to build the reactors beside the coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station, which is set to close in 2014. The province is not endorsing the idea, but it has support from both Haldimand and Norfolk councils, plus local MP and cabinet minister Diane Finley.

A German study linking increased cancer rates in children with their proximity to nuclear power plants raised some eyebrows at the Blue Ridge Community Hall last week. Tipping Point, a Whitecourt-based anti-nuclear group invited German pediatrician Dr. Ernst Iskenius to present the results of the KiKK study to about 30 Whitecourt and Woodland County residents. The KiKK study was the second of two released by the German government last fall. Its results created a public outcry and debate, which is still continuing today in Europe. The first German study, published by Terschueren Hoffmann and D.B. Richardson found 14 cases of leukemia between 1990 and 2005 in children living within five kilometres from the Krummel nuclear plant in Geesthacht and another northern facility in Germany.