Donald Teuma-Castelletti
CHALK RIVER March 21, 2018
A documentary looking into the controversy surrounding the proposed near surface disposal facility (NSDF) at Chalk River will air Sunday, March 25 on Ici Radio-Canada Télé.
As part of the series Découverte, journalists travelled to the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) site in order to speak with concerned citizens and scientists, and report on the debate surrounding the facility.
Journalists from Radio-Canada, Daniel Carrière and Pierre Gagné, joined Jason Phelps and Elssa Martinez on the Ottawa River to discuss their efforts at protesting the NSDF.
The latter two are property owners in the Pontiac and members of the Old Fort Williams Cottagers’ Association (OFWCA), who have worked extensively to express their concern with the NSDF’s location and proximity to the river.
“I think we’re sort of the human-interest part of the story,” said Phelps. “In the sense that they also went to talk to people at Chalk River, different scientists and they even went to France to investigate a similar type of facility that’s been put into place there.”
Meeting up with the reporters in September, the cottagers took them for a tour around the lake before visiting the proposed site.
“The first thing [the reporters] did was they came to the island and interviewed us to get our concerns about the nuclear dump they’re proposing to build,” said Martinez. “Then we brought them all the way to the Chalk River laboratories, because you can see them by water. So we took the boat and brought them all the way to the facilities so we could actually see where they’re proposing to build this mega-dump.”
Phelps said that they had met the reporters through some of the OFWCA’s activities over the summer, including the flotilla protest and inviting Bloc Québecois leader, Martine Ouellet, to tour the facility.
“We met them and they were looking for people to interview,” said Phelps. “My family goes back several generations in the area. My great-great-grandfather cut lumber right off of Chalk River, near the old Oiseau Rock area, so much of my family still has residence there.”
Phelps said the journalists were not only interested in the family history in the area but growing up with the facility nearby.
Protests from concerned citizen groups on both the Quebec and Ontario sides have been going on against the conversion of the site since the announcement by CNL last spring.
Phelps and Martinez became involved with other concerned citizens when the initial proposal was put forward and dedicated much time to their own research on the potential effects as well as taking the time to educate nearby communities on what the CNL has proposed.
Many activists say that the NSDF positioned at Chalk River is a disaster waiting to happen, as it will be storing mainly low-level contaminants one kilometre from the shoreline. The site is planned to hold one million cubic metres of waste across 16 hectares, with deposits planned for the next 50 years.
“If people are interested in finding out more about the project but are bewildered by the science, this is the show that is aimed for lay-people,” said Phelps. “To render more accessible scientific terms and concepts, so it will be very informative for people that are mystified by the science talk.”
Requests to speak with the journalists involved with the episode were not returned by the time of publication.
The episode is set to air March 25 at 6:30 p.m., and will be available for streaming through the Découverte section of the Ici Radio-Canada Télé website afterwards.
