By Jean-François Nadeau
The future of the world, at least according to the boss of the firm AtkinsRéalis, is nuclear. This company, formerly known as SNC-Lavalin, has changed its name. The scandals that have splashed it, she says, are a thing of the past.
For its campaign to promote atomic energy, AtkinsRéalis enlisted the services of two former prime ministers : Jean Chrétien and Mike Harris. In 2019, as Radio-Canada revealed, Jean Chrétien had already gone so far as to offer, with astounding lightness, to store foreign nuclear waste in Labrador. In a letter, the former prime minister wrote to a Japanese firm: « Canada has been the largest supplier of nuclear fuel for years, and I always thought it would be appropriate for Canada to ultimately become the steward and guarantor of the safe storage of nuclear waste after their first cycle of service. »
No nuclear-free carboneutrality, repeats the boss of AtkinsRéalis as an advertising slogan. Fossil fuels must be replaced, while doubling or tripling, thanks to nuclear power, electricity production, he pleads. There is no question, in this presentation, of rethinking a model of society based on an infinite expansion of consumption. Always more cars, as long as they are electric. Always more heating, it doesn't matter that our buildings are thermal colanders. In other words, what keeps counting is growth. And the increase in turnover of AtkinsRéalis is very attached to nuclear power, as noted The duty.