Northern Saskatchewan can breathe a little bit easier since November 21st 2013, when Pinehouse and English River First Nation were released from the grip of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). Since 2010, the administrations of those two communities had been in site selection process with NWMO to bury millions of highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods – the waste product of nuclear reactors – which is exponentially more radioactive than the uranium taken out of the ground.
NWMO’s presence was unknown to many in the north until May 9, 2011, when a regional Elders Circle convened south of Pinehouse at Muskwa Lake for the stated purpose of finding solutions to youth suicide, was instead hijacked by paid, local NWMO liaisons who promoted nuclear waste storage as the answer to suicide. Ten Elders immediately got up and left, breaking the circle. As a result of this desecration, two weeks later, people from Beauval and Pinehouse came together and formed the Committee for Future Generations, the mandate of which was to raise awareness about the hazards of nuclear waste, and to stop it from coming to Saskatchewan. Today, CFFG networks around the world.
Since 2011, thousands of people across northern Saskatchewan, the province and the country, found out what NWMO hoped they never would, which is that we are their last-ditch attempt to bury this extremely hazardous waste out west. Manitoba already legislated a ban and Alberta and B.C. refuse it. Deep geological storage of nuclear waste is an experiment, with vulnerable people as NWMO’s guinea pigs. There is no functioning nuclear waste repository in the world, and scientists do not agree that burying this extremely hazardous and long-lived fuel is the best solution. One accident, one mistake, would mean radiating our water, land, animals, fish and plants; once that happens, it is forever – there is no such thing as “clean up”. The amount of fuel involved in the Fukushima meltdown is a tiny fraction of what would be buried here. The industry’s own charts predict temperature of buried fuel to reach 220 degrees Celsius, over twice the boiling point of water, and as a NWMO official himself told us: meltdown of just a thermos-sized amount of nuclear waste would contaminate not only all of northern Saskatchewan but northern Alberta, Manitoba, and the North West Territories as well. Is that threat the legacy we want to leave for our grandchildren to live with?
Excerpt from Committee for Future Generations December 1, 2013 article. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
Update Nov 20, 2014
Letter by Winnipeg Chapter to NWMO Community Liaison Committee in Creighton:
Dear Committee members,
We would like to express our concern about the NWMO proposals respecting the storage of nuclear waste in the Creighton community. First Nations on whose traditional territory the DGR will be situated are opposed and we support their decisions regarding how their land will be used. We believe Community Liaison Committee (CLC) members would not tolerate efforts to undermine opposition to this project by appealing to individual band councillors for support, as NWMO has admitted to doing.
According to the NWMO, if the DGR project were to go forward, highly radioactive waste will be transported through several provinces, including Manitoba, across thousands of kilometres. Upwards of 50 truckloads per month, or the equivalent amount by rail, are projected to wend their way through our communities for the next 40 years There can never be a guarantee of safety for transports of this magnitude over this amount of time, and the risk is further compounded by Canada’s lack of experience transporting radioactive waste over long distances.
The potential repercussions of even one leak in any place at any time over the million + year life of this material are grave. Communities both near to and far from Creighton share in the risks, both during transport as well as storage. We would like to encourage the CLC to reconsider participating in Phase 3 of the project process.
Sincerely,
Council of Canadians-Winnipeg Chapter
winnipegcanadians.org