A Port Elgin man who opposes two separate nuclear waste burial facilities wonders why low and medium level nuclear waste cannot go into the site for high level nuclear waste.
John Mann is asking why one of the sites under consideration for a Deep Geologic Repository(DGR) for high level nuclear waste cannot also accept low and medium level waste.
Mann has written to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna multiple times over what his sees as the obscene waste of money to build two burial sites. He says all the nuclear waste is currently stored together at Bruce Power. South Bruce, Central Huron and Huron Kinloss are all interested in hosting the site for high level waste like spent nuclear fuel.
"The fact that there is no need and no urgency to build the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) DGR for low and intermediate level nuclear waste at Kincardine is confirmed and proven by simply asking the following question: Would any of the 21 municipalities that are being considered for the DGR site for high level spent fuel nuclear waste mind if OPG also threw the low and intermediate level nuclear waste into the same hole?” says Mann.
Mann also questions the extreme costs to consult with the public on the proposed DGR. He says the Nuclear Waste Management Organization spent $100-million in taxpayer dollars to talk to 18,000 Canadians about their views related to the DGR. Mann says that amounts to $5,555. per person.
Mann says the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is wasting time and money searching for a site for high level waste when Ontario Power Generation has stated unconditionally is a letter to the Environment Minister that the Kincardine site is the right location for low and intermediate nuclear waste.
No other alternate sites to Kincardine were studied but OPG promises some computer simulations in response to a federal order to look at other sites.
The cost of a nuclear storage repository in Bruce County is estimated at $1-billion.
The NWMO is planning to spend nearly $23-billion to stash high level nuclear waste underground in a deep geologic repository.
Blackburn News (CKNX News) is still waiting for a response from Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
