Charles Dickson, Editor

Funded by the Local Journalism Initiative

“People need to wake up and realize the truth that this waste is full of deadly long-lived, man-made radioactive poisons such as plutonium that will be hazardous for many thousands of years,” says Johanna Echlin of the Old Fort William (Quebec) Cottagers’ Association.
Echlin was quoted in a press release issued Monday by a collection of citizens’ groups from both the Ontario and Quebec sides of the Ottawa River that are pressing the federal government to halt the construction of a near-surface disposal facility for radioactive waste approximately a kilometre from the Ottawa River.
“If I hear one more time that the mound will hold ‘only low-level’ radioactive waste including mops and shoe covers, I’m going to scream so loud they will hear me at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna,” Echlin is quoted as saying.
According to the joint press release, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) says waste from research facilities such as Chalk River Laboratories generally belongs to the “Intermediate-level” waste class and must be kept underground, tens of metres or more below the surface.
A letter sent by the citizens’ groups to elected officials on Feb. 4 cites evidence that “waste destined for the mound is heavily contaminated with very long-lived radioactive materials produced in nuclear reactors, which are capable of causing cancer, birth defects and genetic mutations in exposed populations.”
The letter calls for the Government of Canada to halt the disposal project and stop all funding for construction.
“We believe Cabinet or Parliament has the power to reverse this decision and they need to do so as soon as possible,” said Lynn Jones of Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) was recently granted permission by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to build the proposed Near-Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) on the Ontario shore of the Ottawa River roughly across from the Pontiac community of Sheenboro.
According to the press release, if built, the seven-storey mound “will hold one million tons of radioactive and other hazardous waste from eight decades of operations of the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), a highly contaminated federal nuclear research facility owned by the Government of Canada.”
The signatories to the letter are Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, the Old Fort William (Quebec) Cottagers’ Association, Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive, and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility which have been opposing the proposal to build the radioactive waste disposal facility since 2016.