Environmental groups opposed to the proposed construction of an underground storage site for spent nuclear-fuel rods near Ignace continue to urge the federal government not to fast-track the project, and give it the full review many had anticipated.
“The rationale for a full impact assessment, and opposition to the transportation, burial and abandonment of high-level nuclear waste is already overwhelmingly clear,” Nuclear Free North volunteer Wendy O’Connor, who is based just outside Thunder Bay, said in a news release this week.
The federal government is currently seeking to have the proposed deep geological repository (DGR), as it’s officially known, declared “a project of national interest.”
If the designation is granted, it would enable the DGR “to move forward efficiently while protecting Canada’s environment and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples,” a federal backgrounder says.
Interested parties can send comments on the proposal to change the deep geological repository’s status to the government’s Major Projects Office until Jan. 15. The original deadline was Oct. 26.
Nuclear Free North and other opposition groups claim the comment deadline was extended because the Major Projects Office has already received “over 1,000 comments.”
A full environmental assessment into the deep geological repository proposal had originally been expected to include public hearings that also examine the impact of transporting the fuel bundles on major road and rail routes that run through Northwestern Ontario.
The deep geological repository proposal is being put forward by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is funded by the companies that operate Canada’s nuclear power plants.
If the project is approved, it’s expected to receive about six million used and still radioactive fuel-rod bundles in “engineered containers” that would be buried more than 500 metres below the surface “surrounded by clay and rock.”
From start to finish, the deep geological repository would be in place for about 160 years, a federal backgrounder says. It’s been estimated to take 20 years to build the site before it would be ready to receive any of the fuel rods.
Over the past several years, many Northwestern Ontario First Nations and municipalities have voiced opposition to the project, particularly when it comes to the prospect of moving the radioactive material by truck or rail.
The NWMO has claimed the material can be moved to a deep geological repository site safely, noting there has never been a nuclear-waste accident in Canada related to transportation.
Comments to the federal Major Projects Office about upgrading the deep geological repository proposal to a national-interest designation can be sent by email to DGRComment-CommentaireDSCGP@mpo-bgp.gc.ca.
