By DENNIS BUECKERT

OTTAWA (CP) - Environmental, health and church groups have filed a false-advertising complaint against the Canadian Nuclear Association over its ad campaign touting nuclear energy as clean.

The complaint, submitted to the Competition Bureau on Monday, comes amid renewed debate about the nuclear option as an alternative to fossil fuels that are mainly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

It's false to claim nuclear energy is clean because radioactive waste remains dangerous for thousands of years, said Mark Winfield of the Pembina Institute, one of the groups in the coalition.

"We've got generation of just enormous amounts of waste at each stage of the process, and these are extraordinarily difficult-to-deal-with wastes," he said in an interview.

The complaint is based on $1.7 million in advertising by the Canadian Nuclear Association in 2005, mostly on television, touting nuclear energy as "clean, reliable and affordable." The ad campaign continued this year as well.

The Canadian Nuclear Association did not respond to a request Monday for comment.

A Pembina report found that the Canadian nuclear sector produces:

-An estimated 575,000 tonnes of acidic tailings each year from the mining of uranium fuel. These contain a range of acids, long-lived radioactive material, heavy metals and other contaminants.

-Approximately 85,000 waste-fuel bundles annually. As of 2003, 1.7 million radioactive bundles were in storage at reactor sites. It's estimated these wastes will have to be secured for approximately a million years.

Canada still lacks a plan for permanent disposal of nuclear waste although the problem has been under study for many years.

Health Canada and Environment Canada have determined that the discharge from nuclear plants meets the criteria to be categorized as toxic under the Canada Environmental Protection Act.

The Pembina study also found that nuclear plants in Canada have a history of cost overruns. In Ontario, for example, nuclear construction projects have run 40 per cent to 270 per cent over their projected capital costs.

"Our concern is that the nuclear industry's advertising budget and approach distorts objective decisions which have to be made right now about the future of (Canada's) electricity system," said Julia Langer of the Canadian arm of the World Wildlife Federation.

A spokeswoman for the Competition Bureau, which is responsible for charges of false-advertising, said the bureau does not comment on individual complaints, and not all complaints are investigated.

The bureau receives 40,000 complaints a year, said Maureen McGrath.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2006/12/18/pf-2859919.html