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Canada’s nuclear industry, from uranium production to reactor construction, began as an offshoot of the World War II Atomic Bomb project. The largest secret operation in history was called the “Manhattan Project” by the Americans, while the British used the code name “Tube Alloys”. Both of these world powers needed Canada, a ‘friendly’ country with easy access to the essential raw material, uranium. Without uranium to start with there would be no nuclear weapons of any description.<\/p>\n
The 1943 Quebec Agreement was a tripartite commitment to cooperate in building the world’s first nuclear weapons. It was signed by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, and witnessed by Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada. The agreement established a war-time Combined Policy Committee of 3 Americans, 2 British and 1 Canadian representative. In 1944 this Committee authorized the building of the first Canadian nuclear reactors at Chalk River Ontario. These first reactors were considered as part of the war-time effort to produce plutonium for bombs. Plutonium is a uranium derivative. It can only be created in large quantities in a nuclear reactor fuelled with uranium.<\/p>\n
During the Manhattan Project and the subsequent Cold War, Canada sold almost all of its uranium and plutonium to the US army for bombs. In 1965, Prime Minister Pearson declared that Canada’s uranium would thereafter \u00a0be sold only for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n
In 1974, the world was shocked: India exploded its first atomic bomb using plutonium from a Canadian research reactor given to India as a gift. This event dramatized the difficulty inherent in promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear fission while at the same time preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, since one of the principal byproducts of fission is a nuclear explosive material that is otherwise unobtainable.<\/p>\n
All items in this section of the web site deal with nuclear weapons \u2013 the history of Canada’s involvement, the role of uranium, the creation of plutonium, and the various ways in which the civilian industry is intertwined with military aspirations.<\/p>\n
Take Action to Ban Plutonium Reprocessing in Canada\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/b> [ AMAZING VIDEO: Witness 2000 Nuclear Bombs Exploded since 1945 (be patient!)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n [Canada and the Myth of the Peaceful Atom<\/a>]<\/p>\n [\u00a0Enrichment & Reprocessing: From Bombs to Reactors & Back Again (Fact Sheet 2022)]<\/a><\/p>\n [<\/a>\u00a0Open Letter for the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty (Multinational, 2020-2021)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n [Use of Canadian Uranium in the First Atomic Bombs: Verbatim Excerpts (’98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [How Uranium from Great Bear Lake Ended Up in A-Bombs: A Chronology (’98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Canada’s Role in the Bomb Programs of US, UK, France and India: A Chronology<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Canada’s Historic Role in Britain’s Nuclear Weapons Programme<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [CCNR Exhibits Filed at the Nanoose Expropriation Hearings (July\/99)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n Nanoose Expropriation: \u00a0\u00a0NEWS ACCOUNTS AND TESTIMONY:<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n [Groups oppose use of weapons-grade uranium in Chalk River reactors<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [House of Commons ~ Recommendations on Nuclear Weapons (Dec\/98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Canadian Plutonium Sold For American Bombs 1946-76<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Findings on Plutonium : both Civilian and Military<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Nuclear explosives using plutonium from a power reactor (US DOE ’97)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Nuclear weapons using plutonium from a power reactor (US NAS ’94)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [American Nuclear Weapons Test Using Reactor-Grade Plutonium (US DOE)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [For nuclear explosives, “All plutonium is good plutonium” (Sandia Labs ’96)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Statement of the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (’98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Eight “Foreign Ministers” Call for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (’98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [International Civilian Leaders : Statement on Nuclear Weapons (Feb 98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [75 US Bishops Reject the American Policy of Nuclear Deterrence (’98)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Statement on Nuclear Weapons by International Generals and Admirals (Dec 96)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [The Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (’96)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Fueling the Nuclear Arms Race — and How to Stop It (Edwards ’85)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [The Peaceful Atom Goes to War: Bomb Makers Against Plutonium (’78)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [Text of the Non-Proliferation Treaty — Extended Indefinitely in 1995 (’68)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n [The United States Nuclear Arsenal in Miniature (photo)<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/p>\n Press Release<\/a>\u00a0:\u00a0The Indian Bomb Tests and Canadian Accountability<\/b><\/p>\n Tritium from CANDU\u00a0power reactors<\/a>\u00a0aids India’s H-bomb capability<\/b><\/p>\n Hot-linked\u00a0\u00a0background articles<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0on India’s nuclear weapons tests<\/b><\/p>\n Canadian\u00a0Continuing Nuclear Cooperation<\/a>\u00a0with India and Pakistan<\/p>\n
\n[ video, 5 min, 2023 ]<\/p>\n
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