Radioactive waste
Dear Editor,
Sophie Kuijper Dickson’s excellent coverage of why the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan consented to the NSDF (THE EQUITY, June 28) includes this eye-popping statement from Pikwakanagan Councillor Don Bilodeau:
“Plus, it’s low-level radioactive, so it dissipates quickly. And so we understand these things now that we didn’t before.”
It seems that the multinational consortium — SNC-Lavalin, Fluor and Jacobs — and their wholly-owned subsidiary, “Canadian” Nuclear Laboratories, are still relentlessly disseminating misinformation about what would go into their giant nuclear waste dump beside the Ottawa River.
Alas, the “only low level waste” ploy has fooled almost everyone at one time or another in this long sorry saga.
To verify the utter falsehood of the “only low level waste” statement, one need look no further than three recent submissions to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission by Dr. J.R. Walker, Canada’s foremost expert on the Government of Canada’s legacy radioactive wastes and how to manage them properly (an internet search for “CNSC interventions Dr. James R. Walker” will lead you to his submissions).
Dr. Walker was a senior manager at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited in charge of radioactive waste and licensing prior to his retirement in 2013. He states very clearly that the wastes proposed for disposal in the NSDF are “intermediate level wastes” that require underground disposal. He says the proposed dump would be hazardous and radioactive for thousands of years and that radiation doses from the facility would exceed allowable levels.
Dr. Walker also notes that the proposed facility would fail to meet international safety standards and would place Canada in contravention of its international treaty obligations.
What will it take to stop SNC-Lavalin et al. and Canada’s “captured nuclear regulator” from pushing this ill-conceived, dangerous dump on the people of the Ottawa Valley?
Lynn Jones
Allumette Island, Que.
Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County
and Area
Garbage in, garbage out
Dear Editor,
Over the years, the Pontiac has had its fair share of promoters, each preaching that their proposal would bring great economic opportunities.
Well, history is repeating itself again! This time with the proposal of building a mega garbage incinerator operated by an American conglomerate. We would not only be burning our own “excess” garbage (approximately five thousand tonnes per year), but the proposal is to burn approximately 400,000 tonnes of garbage every year. To reach that goal, a steady stream of garbage from the cities of Ottawa, Gatineau and others would need to be trucked in. All of this with apparently little to no environmental or health impact, while bringing much needed economic development to the Pontiac. Win-win, right?
As we Canadians often do, we look to the U.S. to see what is happening there. Studies have shown that between 2000 and 2022, 48 garbage incinerators in the U.S. closed for good. Surprisingly, despite hundreds of attempts to build new garbage incinerators, no new incinerator has been built at a new site since 1995. Residents of Pontiac must ask if garbage incinerators are such a great economic and environmentally safe opportunity, why are American communities not lining up to build new garbage incinerators? Why are they instead closing them? Do the Americans know something that we don’t know, or worse yet – are not being told?
Of the 72 incinerators which are still operating today in the U.S., 80 per cent of them are in financially depressed areas where more than 25 per cent of residents are low-income.
Are our lives and health less important than richer communities?
It is our children and grandchildren who within 25 years will have to face the financial and environmental burden of a toxic, crumbling facility that history shows will not pay out in the end.
Is this the legacy we want to leave behind?
We must demand more from our elected officials. It’s time they do their homework on this issue. There are plenty of “best practices” on waste management around the world. Garbage incineration is NOT one of them – it’s a “worst practice”.
Jen Montague
Thorne, Que.
Friends of the Pontiac
