A one-million cubic metre nuclear waste dump could be built one-kilometre from the Ottawa River.
The Council of Canadians expresses its solidarity with local groups opposed to the plan for a radioactive waste disposal facility on the Ottawa River and support the call for a public meeting in Arnprior to discuss the proposal.
The Arnprior Chronicle-Guide reports, “Mounting opposition to a proposed radioactive waste site has Arnprior council calling for a public meeting.”
It adds, “Groups such as the Council of Canadians, Ottawa Riverkeeper, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, and Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association are concerned that a nuclear waste disposal facility near Chalk River would prove hazardous to a water source for more than 1 million people downriver.”
The newspaper then highlights, “[Arnprior Town Council Reeve Walter Stack] asked staff to organize a public meeting in a room larger than council chambers, and invite [Canadian Nuclear Laboratories] to make a presentation. The meeting would need to take place fairly soon. On March 17 the project’s environmental assessment was completed. Residents have until May 17 to comment on it.”
Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and the Old Fort William Cottagers’ Association say, “If approved, the 30–hectare ‘Near Surface Disposal Facility’ would dispose of up to one million cubic metres of low- and medium-level radioactive waste in a huge mound up to 25 metres high, about 1 kilometre from Ottawa River at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories [site near Chalk River]. A consortium of multinational companies is behind the proposal, currently under review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission [which is expected to decide on the proposal in January 2018].”
To contact members of Arnprior Town Council, please click here.
To send a comment to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on this proposal before their deadline of May 17, please click here.
For more information on this situation, please see Local groups oppose plan for nuclear waste site on Ottawa River
