THUNDER BAY — The prospect of loads of spent nuclear-fuel rods being hauled by transport trucks or rail cars through rural Northwestern Ontario to a future remote underground storage site remains a touchy topic, despite the project proponent's latest assurances.
In unveiling its 2024 annual report this week, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said "years of technical study" have shown that "used (nuclear) fuel can be safely transported to the (storage) site" just west of Ignace.
But some citizen-based environment groups that remain opposed to the plan begged to differ on Tuesday, calling the NWMO's claim "grossly irresponsible."
Wendy O'Connor, a member of the Thunder Bay-based We The Nuclear Free North, said "concerned groups and individuals" are not reassured... given the very real risks that the (nuclear) industry knows to exist."
At the end of November, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization announced it had selected the Ignace-area site for its storage facility, after the plan was backed by the Township of Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, which gave qualified support.
"This project can only continue if it can be proven that it will be built safely, with respect to the environment and in a manner that protects Anishnaabe values," Wabigoon Lake said in a statement.
About a dozen other Northwestern Ontario Indigenous communities, including Fort William First Nation and Grassy Narrows First Nation, are opposed to the project.
In its 2024 annual report, the NWMO's transportation director, Caitlin Burley, said, "We are confident we will have a transportation plan that is safe not only from a technical perspective, but also from a social perspective."
The underground storage site — formally known as a deep geological repository — has yet to be built. It wouldn't start receiving waste until the early 2040s.
The annual report says that used nuclear fuel transport has taken place on Canadian roads since the 1960s.
"There has never been an incident that caused harm to people or the environment due to the radioactive nature of the contents," a regional NWMO spokesman said in an email.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has said that if the radioactive fuel rods are transported by truck in specialized containers, "it would mean two to three shipments a day, approximately nine months of the year."
The proposed frequency has caused some rural Thunder Bay municipalities, including Conmee Township, to pass resolutions against transporting the rods across their boundaries, given the high rate of serious crashes across Northwestern Ontario involving heavy trucks.
O'Connor and like-minded groups believe it makes more sense to keep the spent fuel rods close to where they are used — at nuclear power plants.
"Secure, hardened, long-term surface storage near the reactors themselves, similar to how these wastes are managed today, but with improvements, and with no need for long-distance transport," O'Connor said.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
