To the editor,
It is not surprising to hear that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has postponed their selection of an “informed and willing host” to centralize and dispose of the industry’s most toxic nuclear waste – millions of spent nuclear fuel rods, which would be transported from all nuclear sites in Canada, processed on site and then buried in a deep geological repository (DGR).
Out of sight, out of mind?
They say their decision comes after realizing that in the last 10 years of lecturing the communities of both South Bruce and Ignace as to all the wonderful possibilities that await the chosen host, that no one was listening anymore.
No community engagement.
No one was huddling around the family laptop to take in their twice monthly lectures.
No one was filling out the monthly flyers sent out in hopes of winning a gift basket.
Perhaps they found out that in the summertime farmers were actually out there on the land too busy to join in on a Thursday night “Ask the Experts” Zoom meeting.
In any case, the decision essentially contradicts what this community was told by their local councillors and mayor – that before any referendum could be held, more reports were needed to properly inform us. And that those reports, including the essential geological studies would be forthcoming and before the NWMO’s decision in 2023.
Well, all the reports are in, including the most essential study we were told, the “Confidence in Safety Report” delivered last week. The one that tells us that the bore hole drilling results prove that nuclear waste can be buried safely here in South Bruce.
Incidentally, the report also noted that the results were identical to the 80 bore hole tests done near Bruce Power in Kincardine.
The ones done to acquire a license for the other DGR for low-to-intermediate waste. Remember that one? The one that, in spite of an offering of $80,000 per capita, was totally rejected by the SON when given the chance to vote.
Now of course one has to ask if the bore hole results near Bruce Power were identical to South Bruce. And adequate enough to acquire a license for a low-to-intermediate waste DGR. Why didn’t the NWMO pursue Kincardine as a host site in the first place? After all, 90 per cent of the waste is currently stored at Bruce Power and the infrastructure at the Bruce Energy Centre is already in place.
Why not keep the waste out near Kincardine, one may ask? After all, they have economically boomed in the production of it at Bruce Power. Shouldn’t they feel somewhat responsible for the waste?
Well the reason, I would bet, is that locating a high-level waste DGR along Ontario’s Sunshine Coast, no matter what the borehole results say, would not be socially acceptable to the seasonal tourist community. Too much a risk to the pristine waters and shorelines of Lake Huron.
“Better to dump it off in some rural no man’s land near Teeswater. Poor country folk could use all the jobs anyways.”
And I would also bet that given the chance to vote on it today, the NWMO would get the same message from South Bruce. The same one they are currently getting from First Nations in Ignace and from members of the SON.
David Wood
Mildmay
