Dear Editor,
The referendum on the South Bruce DGR is only days away, and residents have an opportunity to change the future of our local economy. The NWMO expects to spend about 23 billion dollars on the project, if approved. To help make sense of that huge number, we can compare the recent announcements of large EV battery plants to be built in Ontario. Investments announced for Windsor, Oakville, Mississauga and elsewhere have delighted residents and local politicians with the promise of good jobs, tax revenue and spin-off business.
However, important as these developments are, they are dwarfed by the South Bruce opportunity. In Port Colborne, for example, both the Premier and the Prime Minister showed up to welcome the announcement of a $1.6B EV investment, a deal about 7 per cent the size of the DGR. Further, these manufacturing facilities carry a whole set of risks and issues. For example, they require massive government subsidies, they often have a high degree of foreign ownership, and they will be subject to the ups and downs of the auto industry for future survival.
Compare this to the DGR project, which will produce a Costco-sized warehouse, 600 metres down in safe and stable bedrock, to store solid metal bundles of spent fuel from Canada’s nuclear plants. This long-term, Canadian-owned investment will be paid for by our stable and well-managed electricity producers, primarily Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation. Some voters may still be nervous about radioactive waste. Based on my 20+ years in the nuclear industry, I’m not at all worried about this. There is nothing very novel about handling, transporting and repackaging spent fuel. We’ve been safely handling this stuff right up the road at the Bruce site for over 50 years. We know how it behaves. We know how to protect ourselves and our environment.
The scientists at NWMO and elsewhere have studied every facet of the problem, and built layer upon layer of protection into the DGR design. In my humble opinion, it will be more than safe, and I would have no problem having it 600m under my own house (20 times as deep as my drilled well).
From October 21 through October 28, my fellow South Bruce rate payers and I will have a chance to vote whether we are willing to take on this opportunity. A “No” vote ends the process, while a “Yes” vote gives us a chance to continue. After that, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation must consent, and the NWMO must select South Bruce over its other possible site in Ignace Ontario. Then the project needs to pass through rigorous Impact Assessment and the very stringent licensing process, governed by our ever-vigilant Canadian nuclear regulator. The longer we stay in the process, the longer the dollars keep flowing into our community.
Tony Zettel, Mildmay
