The organization planning Canada’s deep geologic repository for spent fuel from nuclear power plants hopes engagement with First Nations peoples can help it avoid a major complication that recently befell a similar project for radioactive waste disposal.
In February, Ontario Power Generation terminated plans to build a repository for low- and intermediate-level waste on the property of its Bruce nuclear power plant in the municipality of Kincardine. The utility had committed to only proceeding at that location with the support of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), which voted against the project on Jan. 31. A new site selection process could last a decade.
One of two locations still being considered for the Nuclear Waste Managementlocal Organization’s (NWMO) used-fuel disposal site is also within the Saugeen Ojibway Nation’s traditional territory in southern Ontario. The NWMO has similarly pledged it would not proceed with that location without backing from SON.
The other location, in northwestern Ontario, includes the traditional territory of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation (WLON).
“I think one of the reasons we’re optimistic is that we’ve been engaging with First Nations and native communities really since the inception of NWMO, and that gives us reason to be optimistic that we can reach a partnership with these communities by our site selection time frame” around 2023, Sarah Hirschorn, NWMO director for geoscience, said during a March 11 panel discussion at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix.
Hirschorn cited examples of collaboration with First Nations groups, including considering both technical requirements and social concerns when selecting locations for drilling boreholes that provide crucial data on the geology of potential disposal sites, she said. When drilling begins for a borehole, First Nations representatives stay on site at all times “so they can see themselves what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and it also provides independent reporting back to their communities.”
There is representation by indigenous peoples in NWMO management and its Board of Directors and Advisory Council, spokesman Bradley Hammond noted Thursday. “Our Indigenous Relations team has developed meaningful policies to guide our work, including our Reconciliation Policy and Indigenous Knowledge Policy,” he said by email. “We also receive ongoing guidance and advice from the Council of Elders and Youth, an independent advisory body made up of Indigenous Elders and Youth.”
While the Saugeen Ojibway Nation as a whole has not staked out a position on the NWMO project, some members have expressed skepticism about offering support, according to local news reports.
“I would imagine that we will not allow high-level waste to be buried within our territory either because that was the big fear with the last project, that high level waste go into it,” Vernon Roote, a former SON chief, told CTV News.
Canadian utilities established the Nuclear Waste Management Organization in 2002 to site, build, and operate a repository for deep-underground, permanent disposal of an anticipated 5.2 million bundles of spent fuel rods from the nation’s nuclear power plants. The $24 billion CAD project as of January had winnowed the number of candidate communities from 22 to two: the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario and the municipality of South Bruce in southern Ontario. A final decision is expected in three years, followed by a decade of construction and 40 years of waste disposal operations.
The Saugeen Ojibway Nation represents over 4,500 members of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation. Their traditional territory encompasses much of the Bruce Peninsula, including Kincardine and South Bruce.
South Bruce is nearly 30 miles east of Kincardine, by road. Siting of the Ontario Power Generation facility has proved significantly more controversial than the Nuclear Waste Management Organization repository, primarily due to the Bruce plant being less than 1 mile from Lake Huron.
Ontario Power Generation first initiated the process for securing regulatory approval from the Canadian government for its selected site, then approached SON for consent, Hirschorn said. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (which counts OPG among its founders) has reversed that order.
“NWMO is doing that sooner, right from the time that we launched the siting process,” she told the audience. “We are actively engaging with SON and have been for several years. It certainly is a challenge, but we’re optimistic that we will get to the point of partnership, and that’s obviously factored in as we narrow down to these communities.”
A site is intended to be selected in partnership with local First Nations peoples. They could object to, and thus prevent, a selected location anytime before a partnership agreement is signed, according to Hirschorn.
