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Alliance Takes Nuclear Waste Opposition Message to Lake Superior’s North Shore Communities

A northern Ontario alliance opposed to plans to transport and bury nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario is taking its message to communities on the North Shore of Lake Superior this week, doing one-day stops with an information table, displays and children’s activities.

The all-volunteer effort organized by We the Nuclear Free North begins Tuesday in Wawa, with stops also scheduled in White River, Terrace Bay and Nipigon.

Earlier in August an eight-day tour of mostly downstream communities visited Fort Frances, Sioux Narrows, Kenora, Vermilion Bay, Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Wabigoon and Atikokan. Locations were organized with the respective municipalities, and selected for high visibility and pedestrian traffic.

“The public response was  very positive during the first tour”, commented Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator with Northwatch and tour organizer.

“In early August we were mostly in downstream communities, whereas the communities we’re visiting this week along the North Shore of Lake Superior are very much on the transportation route. With the NWMO’s plan to send 2-3 trucks per day for fifty years or more this is a key concern along Highway 17”.

On July 10th the Township of Ignace delivered their “willingness decision” to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, which locked the Township into an agreement signed on March 18th, committing the current and future Township councils to supporting the project.

“Transportation communities are completely shut out of the NWMO’s so-called “willingness process”, explained Wendy O’Connor, a member of Nuclear Free Thunder Bay.

“Outside of Ignace, there is real frustration with the NWMO having positioned Ignace as their proxy decision-maker, while shutting out all of the other communities along the transportation route that will be impacted if this project ever actually happened.”

There is broad opposition to the NWMO project from individuals, community and citizens’ groups, municipalities, and First Nations. In addition to criticism of the project itself due to the negative impacts on the environment and human health during transportation and operation and after radioactive waste abandonment, the NWMO siting process and the Township of Ignace’s approach have also been soundly criticized for being secretive, undemocratic, and lacking scientific and technical rigour.

SOURCE: We the Nuclear Free North

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