Hearing on Nuclear Waste Burial Plan Announced for September
Workshop in Mindemoya in Advance of July 5th Deadline to Register
MINDEMOYA, ON – A federal hearing on a proposal to bury a mix of radioactive wastes on the shore of Lake Huron has been announced, with only seventeen days for members to public to register their interest in participating. A workshop will be held in the Community Centre in Mindemoya on July 2nd at 7 pm to share information about the project and the review process and to assist members of the public in determining if they would like to register for the hearing.
Ontario Power Generation’s proposal is to bury 200,000 m3 of radioactive wastes from reactor operations and reburbishment in caverns they propose to carve in the limestone rock approximately 600 metres below the surface of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, on the eastern shore of Lake Huron. The project was referred to a hearing in 2008 and OPG submitted their environmental assessment study in 2011, for review by a three person panel that was named in early 2012.
“Ontario Power Generation has taken five years to provide the information, and now the public has seventeen days to register for the public hearings that will be held in Kincardine this fall”, explained Brennain Lloyd, a workshop organizer with Northwatch.
“This project is important to everyone around Lake Huron because of its potential impacts on the lake. The review is also very important to the 21 communities that are being studied as possible burial sites for high level nuclear fuel waste, because if this nuclear waste burial site is approved the nuclear industry will certainly use it as a precedent in arguing that the next burial site, or sites, be approved.”
There are 12 communities in Northern Ontario being studied by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization as potential burial locations for highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste, including Manitouwadge, Wawa, Spanish, Township of the North Shore, Elliot Lake and Blind River on the North Shore of Lake Huron.
Workshops will also be held in Kincardine and Toronto, and online. The public can visit www.NuclearWaste.ca for more information, including links to the hearing announcement and registration, or call 1 877 553 0481.
