Thunder Bay council delays vote on nuclear waste transportation after protests outside city hall

Thunder Bay city councillors will seek more information before deciding their stance on a proposed nuclear waste management site in northwestern Ontario.

About 50 people surrounded city hall Monday night ahead of a planned debate on the issue, but councillors voted to send it back to its intergovernmental affairs committed for more consultation. 

For years, there has been debate on where a future nuclear waste repository will be built. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), tasked with finding a new place to house Canada's used nuclear fuel, has identified two potential sites:

• The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area, about 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay. 
• The Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario, about 130 kilometres northwest of London. 

Last fall, Nuclear Free Thunder Bay and Environment North made a deputation to Thunder Bay council to push for what's called the proximity principle, which calls for nuclear waste to be stored in newly reinforced storage bins at the site of a nuclear reactor rather than being transported elsewhere.

These groups wanted city council to request that the province adopt the proximity principle, but last month, the city's intergovernmental affairs committee voted against doing so.

Rather than debating the proximity principle Monday night, council voted for the intergovernmental affairs committee to consult with Nuclear Free Thunder Bay and Environment North and report back.

"It's not just a NIMBY [not-in-my-backyard] argument. It's not just that we're saying don't dump it here, leave it somewhere else. We have better solutions," said Peter Lang, a member of Nuclear Free Thunder Bay.

Meanwhile, efforts are ramping up to draw in support from Ignace. Town staff have selected a specialized community engagement team through With Chéla Inc. to conduct a 'willingness engagement study' from November to next June.

The NWMO is expected to decide the location of the repository late next year.

Transporting nuclear waste

Among the main concerns heard at the protest Monday were the potential dangers of transporting nuclear waste more than 1,000 kilometres from southern Ontario through Thunder Bay.

"They may as well build [the repository] at the end of Sistonens Corners and just crash the transports right into the nuclear waste facility," said resident Gail Wdowiak.

There were also tensions surrounding a perceived lack of public consultation ahead of the proximity principle vote.

A 1997 referendum in Thunder Bay saw 91 per cent of voters express opposition to storing nuclear waste in the region. A few years later, council passed a motion expressing concern with transporting nuclear waste through the city. According to Lang, there hasn't been much public engagement since.

"In good faith, they should at least have a public debate where we have a chance on the floor one on one against NWMO to discuss the issues before the public," Lang said.

'An unblemished track record'

Currently, used nuclear fuel is stored on-site at nuclear reactors across Canada. However, those containers are only licensed for between 50 and 100 years, said Vince Ponka, NWMO's regional communications manager for northern Ontario.

As soon as that nuclear waste is transported elsewhere and stored in the new repository, the NWMO will be responsible for it until that site is decommissioned, which could be 200 years from now, he said.

If Ignace is chosen over South Bruce, more consultations will be done across northwestern Ontario in the coming years, said Ponka.

"We can't say that one of our vehicles wouldn't get into a road accident. What we'll need to prove is that that package would remain secure and would not open and would not cause a release of radiation into the environment.

"We've been shipping used fuel in Canada and around the world for more than 50 years without a single release of radiation into the environment," he continued. "The safety standards around nuclear are so strong that shipping of our material is extremely safe and has an unblemished track record."

The federal government tracks previous nuclear incidents and accidents on its website. Nuclear-related events are reported by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

$26B project, hundreds of jobs promised

The nuclear waste repository is being called a $26-billion project and is expected to create between 400 and 600 jobs. If built in Ignace, that could see the town's population of roughly 1,000 people double, said Ponka.

Construction of the repository is expected to begin by 2033, with the site operational in the early 2040s, he said.

This week, delegates from Ignace will fly to Onkalo, Finland, to tour what is expected to be the world's first deep geological repository for nuclear waste. A delegation from South Bruce made the all-expenses-paid trek to Europe this summer, with the costs covered by the NWMO.

The repository in Finland is expected to be operational within a year, said Ponka.