A member of the Red Rock Indian Band says his community hasn’t signed on to house nuclear waste.
Only a handful of residents attended the Nuclear Waste Manage Organization open house at the Nipigon Community Centre. The two-day open house, which began Wednesday, gave residents and any members of the public interested a chance to learn more about the organization’s plan to store nuclear waste in the area.
Nipigon is considered a possible candidate for storing the waste.
But some of the attendees of the open house were not thrilled with that plan.
Terry Bouchard, a member of the Red Rock Indian Band, said his community signed a memorandum of understanding with Nipigon in order to promote economic development. But that agreement didn’t include taking on potentially hazardous materials.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to protect that environment,” he said.
“We didn’t say we were going to promote poison to kill everyone and everything in the whole environment.”
Barry Laukkanen agreed with Bouchard that storing the waste in the area wouldn’t be a good idea.
He said watching the aftermath of nuclear meltdowns and the effects of radiation in other parts of the world has made him hesitant to have the same toxic material near him and his family.
He said there’s no regulation or policy in place that could account for the possibility of a disaster.
Mike Krizanc, communications manager for NWMO, said nuclear fuel is safely managed and the company has a great deal of experience handling the materials for the past 40 years.
“It will continue to be safely managed in a deep geological depository using multiple engineering barriers and the surrounding geology to isolate and contain it,” he said.
The second day of the open house runs from 11:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday.
(With files from Jordan Milani, TBT News)
