Chalk River NSDF: The Nukes are back!

We thought the nuclear threat was history but the serpent has once again reared its ugly head

By Louise Legault

July 18, 2024

The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything passes through this night that can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?

– Gandalf the Wizard in The Return of the King

We thought that the nuclear threat was history but the serpent has once again reared its ugly head. Quebec Minister of Economy and Regional Economic Development Pierre Fitzgibbon has hinted that the Gentilly-2 nuclear plant in Bécancour – shut down in 2012 – could be reactivated. Ontario will be refurbishing its ageing plants and adding in the years to come small modular reactors (SMR), a new, untested technology.

Worldwide, the nuclear industry has found a new purpose and turned a green leaf, arguing it is a clean technology, one that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions and is part of the medical complex, as cancer patients know only too well. No mention though of nuclear waste… Think Chernobyl. Think Fukushima.

The Canadian nuclear industry has scored a great win recently with the decision by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to license the construction of a near-surface disposal facility (NSDF) in Chalk River, Ontario. The project is presented by the operator, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, as “an environmental remediation project”, one that will solve Canada’s legacy nuclear waste problem. It is supposed to be a low-level waste deposit but will also accept nasty things such as tritium, impossible to filter once released into the environment, and Cobalt-60, used in medical applications and imported from other countries. The term “near-surface” is somewhat misleading: it turns out this facility will reach the equivalent of a five-storey building above ground.

‘The Canadian nuclear industry has scored a great win recently with the decision by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to license the construction of a near-surface disposal facility (NSDF) in Chalk River, Ontario.’

The 37-hectare facility will be built on untouched land, a critical habitat for the Eastern wolf and home to black bears and moose, species of cultural significance to Algonquin Peoples. The area will be off limits for some 400 years, the time to operate the facility and for the radioactive material to decay to a point where it no longer represents a risk.

Why should you care? Chalk River is pretty far away, after all. Think again: this disposal facility is located on the Ottawa River, the Kitchi Sibi, and any contamination from the facility could leach into the River either through the soil or the many streams flowing into the river. Now think back to your school days and your geography class. What great river does the Kitchi Sibi flow into? Right: the St. Lawrence River. Small wonder then that 192 MRCs, municipalities, assemblies and caucuses located downstream from Chalk River – and all getting their drinking water from the Ottawa or the St. Lawrence – adopted resolutions in opposition to the facility receiving or accepting any radioactive waste or other waste from any other site outside the Chalk River facility.

If Chalk River is to accept radioactive waste from both Canadian and international sources, how do you suppose this material will reach its final destination? Maybe Greenpeace will have to make a comeback with its flotilla to stop the nuclear waste boats as it did back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, leading to the adoption in 1996 of the London Protocol banning the dumping of radioactive and industrial waste at sea.

‘192 MRCs, municipalities, assemblies and caucuses located downstream from Chalk River… adopted resolutions in opposition to the facility receiving or accepting any radioactive waste or other waste from any other site outside the Chalk River facility.’

Strong opposition

Despite this level of opposition and the opposition voiced during consultations and in the media, the project will nonetheless go ahead, the nuclear industry strongly believing in its technology and its lucky star, it seems: just recently a small tornado hit the area, in what is dubbed Canada’s “Tornado Alley”. “One good tornado will disperse the waste over a wide area, leak into neighbouring river basins and thence to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Ocean, for what might as well be eternity”, noted Green Coalition President, Carole Reed.

Environmental groups and First Nations communities – the project is on unceded Algonquin territory – are now turning to the courts to try to delay what seems to be the inevitable. A first hearing into the judicial review of the NSDF licensing decision was held in Federal Court in Ottawa on July 10 and 11. The Kebaowek First Nation, a small Anishnabeg community is pitted against the private operator, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories.

“The duty to consult was breached. We are going to the Federal Court to challenge the Commission’s incorrect and unreasonable decision. The Commission needed to carry out a procedurally fair consultation process informed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which it ultimately failed to do”, declared Chief Lance Haymond of the Kebaowek First Nation (you can read Chief Haymond’s appeal on the Kebaowek GoFundMe page).

‘We are going to the Federal Court to challenge the Commission’s incorrect and unreasonable decision. The Commission needed to carry out a procedurally fair consultation process informed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which it ultimately failed to do.’

– Chief Lance Haymond, Kebaowek First Nation

The Kebaowek are arguing that the Canadian Nuclear Commission did not respect the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as signed into Canadian law by the 2021 United Nations Declaration Act (UNDA), which spells out the duty to consult and obtain prior and informed consent from the First Nations concerned.

Another lawsuit is getting underway contesting how the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission violated Canadian regulations about the release of radioactive contaminants into the environment. The Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive, First Nations and Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County are taking the lead on this one.

“We’ve worked on the regulatory front with the consultations, we’ve also tried the political route by meeting politicians and worked as well with the media to try to alert the population. The legal domain may not stop the project; all that remains now is the people”, explains Tom Schwalb, a member of the Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive executive.

How can you help? Stay informed and support the many groups that are involved in the fight. Donations, no matter how small, will help pay for these expensive court proceedings.

Let’s stop nuclear waste! Protect the Kitchi Sibi!

For more information, please contact the Green Coalition at greencoalitionverte@yahoo.ca

Feature image: Determined protestors on the steps of the Federal Court building in Ottawa on July 10, courtesy of Green Coalition

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