nuclear-news

On March 3, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that Creighton was no longer a contender in the organization’s siting process. It was the last of three Saskatchewan communities in the running to host a deep geological repository for the long term storage of spent fuel bundles from Canada’s nuclear reactors in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick.

“This announcement is the culmination of four years of research, sacrifice, networking and hard work by a group of dedicated people with one goal: to keep nuclear waste out of Saskatchewan,” said Candyce Paul, a founding member of the Committee for Future Generations.

Dene, Cree, Métis and settler residents of northern Saskatchewan formed the grassroots Committee for Future Generations in 2011 when they learned that three locations in the region were taking part in NWMO’s siting process. Saskatchewan’s Northern Administration District covers approximately half of the province, and an estimated 80 percent of its 37,000 residents are Dene, Cree and Métis. The region is also home to Canada’s uranium mines.

Over the past four years, the Committee for Future Generations has led the fight against NWMO in Saskatchewan. The all-volunteer committee coordinated a 900-kilometer march down to Regina, petitions, rallies, workshops, and a host of other activities.

“The powerful Nuclear Waste Management Organization with all their money and all their experts could not beat back the duty we have to protect our future generations,” said Paul.

English River First Nation and the northern village of Pinehouse in northwestern Saskatchewan were dropped from NWMO’s multi-phase siting process in November 2014. Also now no longer under consideration for further study, Creighton is located in northeastern Saskatchewan, right across the provincial border from Flin Flon, Manitoba…….

The PBCN Chief and Council resolved to oppose the storage and transportation of nuclear waste in the region. Other Saskatchewan First Nations and towns had previously made formal resolutions along the same lines, as had organizations of northern trappers, Indigenous women, and others. Resistance also began to pick up in Creighton itself during the two years before the town was dropped……..

there has been strong Indigenous opposition in Ontario for years. Both the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), representing 49 First Nations in northern Ontario, and the Anishinabek Nation, representing 39 member First Nations across Ontario, have formally declared their opposition to nuclear waste in all of their traditional territories……

“This is what happens when people stick together and fight for what they believe in,” said Fred Pederson, a Pinehouse resident and member of the Committee for Future Generations. https://intercontinentalcry.org/victory-saskatchewan-to-remain-nuclear-waste-free/