British anti-nuclear campaigners support Canadian counterparts over nuke dump

Joint Media Release

British anti-nuclear campaigners support Canadian counterparts over nuke dump

In an act of international solidarity, British anti-nuclear campaigners have written to the Premier of Ontario in support of fellow Canadian activists who on 30 May presented a petition to the Legislative Assembly of that state opposing the transportation and dumping of nuclear waste.

The Chair of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) English Forum, Cllr David Blackburn, was joined by co-signatories Marianne Birkby from Radiation Free Lakeland / Lakes against the Nuclear Dump; Jan Bridget from Millom against the Nuclear Dump / South Copeland against the Geological Disposal Facility; and Ken Smith from Guardians of the East Coast in making an appeal to Premier Doug Ford calling for Canadian nuclear waste to be retained at the sites at which it was generated and stored in purpose-built secure facilities coupled with constant monitoring and active stewardship, rather than trucked for thousands of miles and dumped underground.

In Canada, the Nuclear Waste Management Organisation (NWMO), established by that nation’s nuclear power plant operators, is seeking a site for a so-called Deep Geological Repository for all of Canada’s nuclear fuel waste. As 90% of the waste is held by Ontario Power Generation, a major shareholder in the NWMO, two sites in that state have been short-listed.

Campaigners here in the UK face a similar threat from a Geological Disposal Facility with government-funded Nuclear Waste Services currently investigating the possibility of locating an underground / undersea nuclear waste dump in West Cumbria or East Lincolnshire. As in Canada, many people bitterly object to the plans and have coalesced around local campaigns to oppose them. It is therefore natural that British campaigners should want to express support for Canadian colleagues facing a similar threat.

The petition was formally presented to the Assembly by three elected representatives, Lise Vaugeois, Sol Mamakwa and Mike Schreiner on behalf of the people of Ontario and ‘We the Nuclear Free North’ an alliance of people and groups opposing a nuclear waste dump, or in Canada a Deep Geological Repository, in Northern Ontario. Members of the Alliance include Indigenous Canadians from the First Nations.

Commenting Cllr David Blackburn, Chair of the NFLA English Forum, said: “Our Canadian counterparts are calling specifically for a ‘proximity principle’ to be adopted by the State of Ontario in the storage and stewardship of nuclear waste. This mirrors the position of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities and the Scottish Government that waste should be kept ‘near to the site where it was produced and on or near the surface’ so that it can be continually monitored and retrieved and repackaged in the event of an accident”.

The NWMO in Canada and Nuclear Waste Services in the UK have been liaising recently for the purposes of knowledge sharing, and anti-nuclear campaigners in both nations are now looking to set up an early meeting to discuss their own ideas for international collaboration.

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For more information, please contact Richard Outram, Secretary, UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk, telephone +44 (0) 7583 097793

Notes to Editors – Our websites are:

UK / Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/

Radiation Free Lakeland, Lakes Against Nuclear Dump Campaign https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/

Millom against the Nuclear Dump / South Copeland against the GDF https://southcopelandagainstgdf.org.uk/

Guardians of the East Coast https://www.gotec.org.uk/

We the Nuclear Free North https://wethenuclearfreenorth.ca/

The letter sent to Premier Doug Ford, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, reads:

The Hon. Doug Ford,
Premier, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Premier’s Office
Room 281
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1A1

By email to: Premier@ontario.ca

Thursday 1 June 2023

Dear Premier Ford,

UK support for the petition presented 30 May to the Legislative Assembly on the management of nuclear fuel waste

We, being the representatives of UK-based campaign bodies opposed to the generation and transportation of radioactive nuclear waste, and its disposal in any underground or undersea dump, are writing to you to express our support for the principles outlined in the petition presented 30 May to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by representatives, Lise Vaugeois (NDP – Thunder Bay-Superior North), Sol Mamakwa (NDP – Kiiwetinoong) and Mike Schreiner (GPO Leader – Guelph), on behalf of their the people of Ontario.

As in Ontario, in our UK home counties of Cumberland and Lincolnshire, the UK Government and nuclear industry are seeking to justify the creation of a Geological Disposal Facility, a nuclear waste dump to which Britain’s legacy and future high-level and heat-emitting nuclear waste, including this nation’s significant stockpile of plutonium, will be transported by rail for dumping beneath the seabed of the Irish or North Sea respectively; there it shall languish in the vain hope that it shall not leak or be otherwise disturbed for at least the next 100,000 years, lest it contaminate our oceans.

The petition submitted to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario expressed support for a ‘proximity principle’, that nuclear waste should be retained at the sites at which it was generated and there be subject to storage in above-ground or near-surface, purpose-built secure facilities with constant monitoring, active stewardship, and a facility for retrieval and repackaging. This is also our position with respect to the treatment of radioactive waste in the UK.

Such a policy avoids the dangers of transporting waste hundreds of miles by rail or truck and the uncertainty that the integrity of the deep disposal facility will over the centuries be compromised, provides for retrieval and repackaging where waste is leaking, and ensures that the skill set needed to manage nuclear waste safely and effectively will be passed along from generation to generation.

The situation in the UK mirrors that of Canada. Here, the UK Government’s policy is being expressly carried out by its agents, Nuclear Waste Services, and aided by its collaborators in local and county authorities, against the wishes of most local people. Consequently, we have tremendous empathy with the people of Ontario, especially First Nation Canadians with their historic, cultural, and spiritual link to the land and to dump nuclear waste in their traditional lands appears to us to represent yet another example of nuclear colonialism.

We would urge the Government of Ontario to adopt our approach in its treatment of radioactive waste and accordingly commend the petition for adoption as policy to you.

Thank you for your consideration of this letter. Please send any acknowledgement or reply in the first instance to Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Councillor David Blackburn, Chair, UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities English Forum

Marianne Birkby, Founder, Radiation Free Lakeland, Lakes Against Nuclear Dump Campaign, Cumbria

Jan Bridget, Co-Founder, Millom against the Nuclear Dump / South Copeland against the Geological Disposal Facility, Cumbria

Ken Smith, Chair, Guardians of the East Coast, Lincolnshire

The media release issued by ‘We The Nuclear Free North’ reads:

Petition Demands Nuclear Fuel Waste Be Managed Close to Points ofGeneration at Nuclear Generating Stations

TORONTO – A petition asking the Provincial government to adopt a proximity principle requiring that high-level radioactive waste be managed close to where it is generated, and to direct Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to further their development of robust extended storage systems in these locations, was presented today in Ontario’s Legislative Assembly by Lise Vaugeois (NDP – Thunder Bay-Superior North), Sol Mamakwa (NDP – Kiiwetinoong) and Mike Schreiner (GPO Leader – Guelph).

OPG owns over 90% of the nuclear fuel waste in Canada, and is a major shareholder in the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is seeking a site for a deep geological repository for all of Canada’s nuclear fuel waste. Two sites are now short-listed: the Revell Site between Ignace and Dryden, and the South Bruce-Teeswater Site near Teeswater. Members of We the Nuclear Free North in Northern Ontario, and Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste in Southwestern Ontario, have collected 1,141 signatures on the petition.

“Transport of this lethal waste thousands of kilometres through Ontario is an outrageous proposal,” said Dodie LeGassick, member of We the Nuclear Free North and Nuclear Lead for Environment North. “Management close to the points of generation would improve safety and allow waste to be moved into more secure storage sooner, not delaying decades for a theoretical repository. Long-term management near the reactors, but not right on lakeshores, makes sense and removes the risks of transport.”

Bill Noll of Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste said, “The rush to bury this highly radioactive waste is a desperate proposal by the nuclear industry, as represented by the NWMO. The signers of this petition favour a rolling stewardship approach: secure management of the radioactive waste near its points of origin, at or near the surface, where the waste can be accessed and monitored.” Additional petitions are active among groups opposing the NWMO’s proposed deep geological repository.

Environment North has collected over 12,000 signatures on an online petition that opposes NWMO’s nine-step siting plan, and Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste is circulating a petition informing the Ontario government that Ontario is not a willing host for a deep geological repository, and demanding programs that prioritize the investigation of technology alternatives.

The petition presented to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario reads:

PETITION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO ON ADOPTION OF THE PROXIMITY PRINCIPLE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES WHEREAS:

• Ontario Power Generation is the owner of more than 90% of high-level radioactive waste in Canada and is the major shareholder in the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO)

• The NWMO was created by the nuclear fuel waste owners in Canada in 2002 and has been engaged in a nine-step site selection process for a deep geological repository for all of Canada’s high-level waste since 2002

• The NWMO’s nine-step site selection has been highly divisive in the communities the NWMO has investigated and continues to be divisive in the areas of the two remaining sites under investigation (a site in South Bruce in Southwestern Ontario and a site between Ignace and Dryden in Northwestern Ontario)

• The NWMO is seeking a site to construct a deep geological repository for which it has presented a series of concepts but has no actual design and for which there is no precedent; there is no approved or operating deep geological repository for nuclear fuel waste anywhere in the world, despite more than five decades of effort by the nuclear industry

• The NWMO includes in their nine-step process the “option” of adding a temporary shallow repository while site characterization is underway to support predictions made in an earlier assessment for a deep geological repository; the shallow cavern option could be approved through a licence amendment without being subject to a full environmental assessment and would presuppose the outcomes of the geoscientific verification program

• The proposed transportation campaign to move nuclear fuel waste from reactor stations to a centralized location (i.e. the selected site for a deep geological repository) includes an estimated 2-3 road shipments per day for an estimated 50 years or more, which will result in significant expense and greenhouse gas emissions; this proposed transportation of the nuclear fuel waste presents significant dangers both to the environment and to the exposed public, including drivers and bystanders exposed to gamma radiation; these impacts could be greatly increased under accident conditions; if the NWMO opted to send high-level waste from Ontario reactors by rail each train would carry 14 containers weighing 100 tonnes each

• The NWMO proposes to transfer the wastes into transportation containers at the reactor stations and then transfer the waste again at the selected DGR site into a “final” container; the repackaging facility at the (theoretical) DGR site is still at the concept stage, but repackaging will be technically difficult and presents a set of hazards for workers, potential impacts on human health, and the threat of contamination of air, ground and water with radioactive releases

• There is strong opposition to deep geological repositories in the areas under investigation, and this opposition has received significant international support from both citizens and scientists

• There is a viable alternative in the form of making on-site storage more robust and adopting a program of rolling stewardship for the long-term monitoring and management of radioactive waste at or near current locations

• The Proximity Principle directs that radioactive waste should be managed as close to the point of generation as is technically feasible; the Proximity Principle has been embedded in the European Community’s Strategy for Waste Management since the 1990s and some jurisdictions, including Scotland and Wales, have a “Proximity Principle” included in their radioactive waste policy