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The nuclear power debate in Saskatchewan never really went away.

Sure, it’s been dormant for much of the past decade since the 2009 Uranium Development Partnership (UDP) report and public consultations by former deputy minister Dan Perrins, whose work seemingly put an end to the matter.

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Notwithstanding then-Energy Minister Bill Boyd’s assessment that Perrins’s UDP report was “neither a green light nor a yellow light for future uranium development … (but) more yellow light — ‘take your time. Get it right. Consider all the options,'” this was a a red light.

Of the submissions Perrins received in 2009, 86 per cent opposed nuclear power compared with only 14 per cent that supported it. Any such process is weighed heavily toward opposition voices, but this was overwhelming. About the only true consensus was 99 per cent of those who participated in the process didn’t think there was enough information. Asked at the time why his process seemed to fail so miserably at informing the public, Perrins deadpanned: both sides believed the other side needed more information.