Manitouwadge Passes Initial Nuclear Waste Mgmt Org Screening – Decision to Continue Now In Council’s Hands

Written by admin on 15 January 2013

Left to right; Jo-Ann Facella Director Social Research and Dialogue NWMO; Drew Heagle Senior Geoscientist Geofirma Engineering Ltd.; and Ben Benfadhel Ph.D. Director Geoscience NWMO. Photo OntarioNewsNorth.com

MANITOUWADGE, ON – A group of representatives from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization attended the regular meeting of Coucil this past Wednesday, January 9th to offer a presentation regarding the results of the initial screening of Manitouwadge and the Manitouwadge area in regards to potential to host a deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel.

In addition to the NWMO’s Northwest Regional Communications Manager Patrick Dolcetti and Senior Geologist Mary Sanchez in the audience were NWMO presenters Ben (Mahrez) Belfadhel Ph.D. Director of Geoscience and Jo-Ann Facella Director of Social Research and Dialogue accompanied by Drew Heagle Senior Geologist from Geofirma Engineering Ltd which provided the initial screening report of the Manitouwadge area for the NWMO.

The purpose of the initial screening in Phase 2 of the process is to determine whether, based on readily-available information and five screening criteria, there are any obvious conditions that would exclude the community from further consideration in the site selection process.

The NWMO commissioned Geofirma Engineering Ltd. to conduct the initial screening for Maniouwadge and prepare reports that outline the findings, as mentioned Drew Heagle, Senior Geoscientist for Geofirma Engineering was one of those in attendance presenting to council. Based on the review of readily-available information and the application of the five initial screening criteria, the report outlined that there were no obvious conditions that would exclude Manitouwadge from further consideration in the NWMO site selection process and so the decision to move forward, continuing to ‘Learn More’ will be one that council will make in the coming months.

With this successful initial screening, should Manitouwadge choose to continue to explore its potential interest in the project, the area will be the subject of progressively more detailed assessments against both technical and social factors to confirm the suitability of the community. Several years of studies would be required to confirm whether a site within an area could be demonstrated to safely contain and isolate used nuclear fuel if council does decide to Learn More. It is important to note that at at any point during the process, a community is able to pull itself from the screening process and decide this is not a project for them and they no longer want to be involved. Also, as council heard there are many funding options available to assist communities that are learning more, ensuring that they are not suffering a financial burden in an effort to be informed, accepting funding availalbe from the NWMO does not change a communities options, they are still able to discontinue participation at any time.

The process for identifying an informed and willing host community for a deep geologicalrepository for the long-term management of Canada’s used nuclear fuel is designed to ensure, above all, that the site which is selected is safe and secure for people and the environment, now and in the future. The NWMO expects that the selection of a preferred site would take between seven to ten years. It is important that any community which decides to host this project base its decisions on an understanding of the best scientific and social research available and its own aspirations.

Should the Township of Manitouwadge continue to be interested in exploring the project, over this period there would be ongoing engagement of the community, surrounding communities and others who may be affected. By the end of this process, the whole community would need to clearly demonstrate that it is willing to host the repository in order for the project to proceed.

The next evaluation step would be to conduct a feasibility study as described in Step 3 of the site selection process. This feasibility study would focus on areas selected in collaboration with the community.

There are many Northshore neighbours also involved in Learning More with the NWMO, all at different places in the process, White River also learned, not long ago that it had passed the initial screening and is also currently deciding wheether to continue Learning More as is Manitouwadge. Schreiber and Hornepayne ae among other communities (C LICK HERE for full list of communities) which have passed initiatial NWMO Site Selection screenings suggest ingthey are likely to contain geological formations that would be potentially suitable for hosting a deep geological repository and the communities are continuing in the Learn More process while initial screenings in Red Rock suggested it was unlikely to contain geological formations that would be potentially suitable for hosting a deep geologicalrepository and for this reason could not be considered a suitable candidate for continuing in the NWMO site selection process.

The full screensing results are avilalble to the public, please contact your local township office for more [in Manitouwadge (807)826-3227].