Caleb Nickerson
SHEENBORO Oct. 2, 2017
On Oct. 2, a public consultation was hosted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) at the Parish Hall in Sheenboro on the subject of a proposed storage facility for radioactive material across the Ottawa River at Chalk River Laboratories.
The near surface disposal facility (NSDF) as it is known, would span 16 hectares and is designed to take on one million cubic meters of low- to intermediate-level waste over the next 50 years. It comes with a price tag of $325 million and is located one kilometre from the Ottawa River.

It is being put forward by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), the government-owned, private-sector operated company that manages the site. They say it is a necessary part of their revitalization of the facility, which has many aging buildings slated for demolition and plenty of legacy waste that needs disposal.
In their draft environmental impact statement, released earlier this year, CNL states that 90 per cent of the waste heading to the NSDF is already stored or will be produced at Chalk River.
Opponents of the proposal have raised concerns over the waste being shipped to Chalk River from other nuclear facilities across the country, as well as the type of intermediate-level waste that would be stored at the site. In response to criticisms of their choice of location, CNL staff have stated that since they are already monitoring the Chalk River property extensively, the NSDF would pose a minimal risk.
The environmental impact statement was reviewed by the CNSC – the government regulator that provides oversight to the nuclear industry – who required CNL to produce additional information moving forward with the project. Further hearings will be scheduled for 2018.
CNSC media relations officer Aurèle Gervais explained that public consultations were standard procedure for a project like this and they hoped to keep the local populace involved in the conversation.
“We were here earlier this year and we’re back to hear what people have to say,” he said. “We always make a point of trying to go into communities.”
Dozens of community members, officials and even Pontiac MP Will Amos were in attendance for the consultation.
Local entrepreneur Jim Coffey expressed his concern with the NSDF.
“For me, I’m involved in eco-adventure tourism and I’m not going to pretend to be a scientist,” he said. “I certainly don’t want to tell the brilliant minds of the Canadian nuclear world how to build their disposal site. But I can tell you that for the majority of our public, building within a kilometre of the Ottawa River just doesn’t give us that much confidence.”
“Don’t think of this as a NIMBY, like ‘not in my backyard’ complaint from us here in the Pontiac,” he continued. “This could affect millions of downstream users, of which we’re the first ones to get affected.”