Shipment of Nuclear Waste has Northwatch in Ottawa today

Northwatch News Release

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Northwatch is one of seventy five intervenors in a two day hearing of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission reviewing the controversial proposal by Bruce Power to ship 1600 tonnes of radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to Sweden, where most of the radioactive metal is to be melted and sold as scrap for unrestricted use.

Opponents are arguing that the proposal violates international guidelines on radioactive transport and breaks commitments made in an earlier environmental assessment of the refurbishing of reactors at the Bruce nuclear complex. They cite the risk of contamination of the Great Lakes and/or St. Lawrence River and the mixing of radioactive metals into global metal supplies as key concerns, and charge that there has been an inadequate technical review of the waste inventory and of accident scenarios, and that approval of the application by the CNSC would be precedent-setting, potentially paving the way for future trafficking in nuclear wastes.

A coalition of environmental and social organizations from across northeastern Ontario, Northwatch is intervening in the hearing because of the potentially precedent setting nature of the proposed waste shipment and because of the risks to Lake Huron - including the potential for adverse effects on the North Channel and North Shore of Lake Huron, Manitoulin Island - and the broader Great Lakes ecosystem.

"There is no policy in place in Canada that supports a proposal to export Canada's nuclear waste in this case reactor refurbishment waste to a foreign country or to allow the residual waste, which will be even more radioactive, to be imported back into Canada. There is, however a very high level of concern in the Canadian public about the potential for international trafficking in nuclear waste," said Brennain Lloyd, a spokesperson for Northwatch.

"By approving this application by Bruce Power, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission would become the de facto policy makers, which is both beyond their mandate and outside the best interests of Canadians."

Lloyd says that with the nuclear industry currently searching for a community willing to 'host' an underground repository for all of Canada's nuclear fuel waste, it is a particularly bad time to be opening the doors to the import and export of radioactive waste.

Northwatch is among 25 intervenors scheduled to present on Wednesday, September 29th. The public hearing will be webcasted live on the Internet via the CNSC Web site at http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/commission/webcasts.

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