IGNACE — The latest major step in the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s push for a massive underground storage site for spent nuclear fuel is “fantastic news” to Ignace’s mayor.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada publicly posted the initial project description submitted by the NWMO for the proposed deep geological repository on Monday. That kicked off a years-long process that will determine whether the facility between Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation gets built or not.
“It’s fantastic news for the NWMO to submit that (project description) and it’s just one step further moving forward,” Kim Baigrie said.
“It’s a — I don’t want to say promise — but it’s, for the future moving forward, it’s just another step that we’ve come to that will make the community feel better about this.”
The project description’s public posting also started a one-month public comment period.
Ignace, along with Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, were named in late 2024 as the designated host communities for the repository planned for the Revell Lake area, south of Highway 17. The facility would accept and store long-term the waste from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, the industry-funded and government-mandated not-for-profit, has said the estimated $26-billion project will create hundreds of jobs during each of the pre-construction, construction and operations phases. Officials in Ignace — a community that saw its population halved over a roughly 20-year span starting in the mid-1980s as industries dried up — have said being the anchor municipality for the NWMO’s operations could reverse that crash.
“I’m excited, you know,” Baigrie said. “I sat on council … 15 years ago now when we put our name forward, so I have been watching this process and getting involved.”
“I’m excited. And being out at those boreholes, I felt like I was on top of the world.”
Not everyone in town says they share the mayor’s optimism. Diana Schmidt, an Ignace resident and longtime opponent of the repository, said in a January interview with TBT News she will be submitting that opposition to the impact assessment agency.
“This step that they’re starting, as of now, I want to make sure everybody’s voices are heard, and I will be getting people to go and put their voice in as well,” she said, noting that the highly-radioactive spent fuel would be transported to the region from other places hundreds and thousands of kilometres away.
“We can’t back down now at this point — I mean, we have to try and stop them from burying it up here.”
Township officials have said over three quarters of the community aged 16 and older voted yes to the NWMO’s project.
Baigrie said more information sessions will be held in Ignace where residents will be able to continue to get more information, ask questions and share concerns. She said everyone also now has the opportunity to submit comments during the impact assessment agency’s window.
“It’s always been, right from day one with me, with the staff, with the council, that the best interest for us is to look after the community, is to make sure that they’re involved in this, and that we want to see this project go forward,” she said.
“And it’s for the best interest of this community.”
