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Two environmental groups are calling on the province to redirect the storage of radioactive waste closer to areas where it is being generated.
We the Nuclear Free North and Protect Our Waterways are petitioning the Ford government to consider what is known as the proximity principle.
They claim it is a strategy widely used in European for waste management since the 1990s.
The groups are concerned with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s consideration of the Ignace area as a possible storage site.
Charlie Faust from We the Nuclear Free North says their concern is the distance.
“I want you to remember 1694. That’s the number of kilometres that it would take, one way, from the average site of nuclear waste storage in Ontario, southern Ontario, to the Ignace area, 1694 km. They’re proposing two to three trucks a day, every day for 50 years,” says Faust.
The groups also believe the idea of a deep geological repository is not very well-defined.
“It has several very questionable areas, one of which is an option for a shallow cavern, which, if approved, could see nuclear waste being moved into the area before the deep geological repository is actually complete and in operation,” says Faust.
“Nuclear fuel waste should be managed at the point of generation by making onsite storage more robust and adopting a program of rolling stewardship for the long-term monitoring and management of radioactive waste at or near its current location. That is what we’re asking the Ontario government to do.”
With the help of the opposition, the two environmental groups presented their petitions to the legislature on Tuesday.