The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler wants a face-to-face meeting with Brad Wall after the premier all but ruled out a nuclear waste storage facility for Saskatchewan. Wall's remarks, made last month, poured cold water on Creighton's potential pursuit of a multibillion-dollar repository that would store Canada's spent nuclear fuel rods. "I'm very disappointed in the fact that he made an announcement like that without any consultation with any of the communities that have shown interest [in the repository]," Fidler said. "There are three communities in northern Saskatchewan that have shown an interest in pursuing this and there was no consultation done whatsoever, and it's very disappointing." Fidler said he will soon request a personal meeting with Wall in hopes of persuading him to reconsider. Asked whether the repository is a dead issue, the mayor said he hopes not. For now, he noted, Creighton is "definitely not stopping our interest" and will "pursue it as long as we can." Wall told reporters last month that Saskatchewan residents do not want a nuclear waste repository in their province and that he would most likely not allow one to be built. 4,500 signatures According to The StarPhoenix, the announcement came after a petition with more than 4,500 signatures of people opposing such a facility was presented in the legislature. "This would be very much a provincial issue and while we would respect the fact that different communities do want this, there should be a sense that the province in general is supportive and I don't have that sense," Wall said, as quoted by The StarPhoenix. According to the newspaper, Wall refused to rule out legislation to ban nuclear waste storage in the province. Such a law already exists in Manitoba. Fidler questioned how a petition with more than 4,500 signatures could carry such consequence in a province with over one million people. He wondered whether a petition with 5,000 names in support would sway the government. See 'Town...' on pg. 7 Continued from pg. 1 While Creighton has not applied to host the repository, town council has shown a strong interest in learning more about the possibility. Earlier this year, they asked Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organi-zation (NWMO) to study whether the town meets the geological and other requirements. Beyond the economic spin-offs, Fidler argued that since Saskatchewan is a leading producer of uranium Ð the source of nuclear energy Ð the province should play a role in storing the end waste product. "We produce the biggest percentage of the world's uranium and it's exported out of this province," he said. "And with that, there's billions of dollars in profits and thousands of jobs. Are they going to stop that or do they not have a moral obligation to see the [process] right through?" Japan earthquake In making his announcement, Wall said the March earthquake in Japan Ð which devastated a nuclear power plant, causing a radiation scare Ð had prompted people to think about the nuclear waste issue. But Fidler stressed the repository would not be a nuclear reactor, but an underground storage facility for the spent nuclear fuel rods. The mayor said most residents with whom he has spoken support Creighton's position, while only a couple have expressed opposition. "I will respect anybody's opinion," he said. "And I would hope that they would do the research, get all the facts that they possibly can on the subject, and then make up their mind." Even if Wall and his Saskatchewan Party lose re-election this fall, the party that would succeed them, the NDP, is also against nuclear waste storage. NWMO is in the early stages of determining where Canada's lone nuclear waste storage facility will be located. Interested Of the eight communities so far interested in learning more about the repository, three are located in Saskatchewan: Creighton, Patunak and Pinehouse. The repository would store the country's used Ð and heavily contained Ð nuclear fuel "bundles," each about the size of a fire log. The toxicity of these bundles diminishes with time, but they remain a potential hazard indefinitely. The used nuclear fuel is not gaseous, as some assume, but instead has the hard consistency of ceramic. It is packed in containers before being stored. Though it tentatively won't open for another 24 years, the repository will represent a multibillion-dollar investment and is expected to spawn more than 4,000 jobs before, during and after construction.11/5/11
