nuclear-news

Indigenous group vows to stop nuclear waste shipments unless new deal struck

CTV News By Scott Miller, January 23, 2025 

Leaders with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) say they are no longer willing to have their territory “exploited” for the production of nuclear energy and storage of radioactive waste.

“The nuclear issue has the biggest footprint in the Saugeen Ojibway Territory. It’s the biggest footprint bearing on the environmental imprint, so we need to start getting some of that stuff resolved,” said Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation Coun. Paul Jones.

The SON is home to Bruce Power, the world’s largest operating nuclear station, as well as Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Western Waste Management Facility that houses most of Ontario’s nuclear waste.

That includes over one million used nuclear fuel bundles and approximately 100,000 cubic metres of low and intermediate level nuclear waste.

SON leadership say they didn’t agree to either nuclear facility being constructed in their territory, but they are left to deal with them on their traditional lands that stretch from Tobermory to Goderich.

“I believe there were some formal agreements with SON in 2018 and 2022. Since then, Ontario Power Generation has reneged (renegotiated) on some of those commitments, and it kind of put some of the talks on standstill for now,” said Saugeen First Nation Chief Conrad Ritchie.

To restart those talks about compensation for hosting a large portion of Ontario’s nuclear waste, SON has threatened to stop allowing shipments of nuclear waste into their territory unless “significant progress” is made “towards the resolution of nuclear legacy issues” within six months………………………………………………..

Although the plan is to eventually move the millions of used nuclear fuel bundles currently stored at the Western Waste Management Facility to a yet constructed underground facility in northern Ontario, the highly radioactive material will remain in Saugeen territory for many more decades, and that’s worth something, said SON leadership.

“We’re taking all the risk and there’s no benefits coming to SON,” said Jones.

“Hopefully we’ll come up with a good plan or a resolution that’s fair for all parties. And that Saugeen and Nawash get their equal share of operating within our traditional treaty territory,” said Ritchie.

The SON is comprised of the Saugeen First Nation and Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. Their traditional territories stretch from Tobermory east to Collingwood, and south to Arthur and Goderich. https://www.ctvnews.ca/london/article/indigenous-group-vows-to-stop-nuclear-waste-shipments-unless-new-deal-struck/

January 26, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, indigenous issues