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 Just beneath the fibreglass surface of the display case rests a geiger counter, a device used to detect radiation with a crackling noise made famous by sci-fi movies. To its right is a spinnable plate containing a seemingly random sequence of everyday objects: rocks, wicks from camping lanterns, a salt substitute and a pair of orange salt and pepper shakers. Mahrez (Ben) Belfadhel reaches over and slowly rotates the plate, setting each object in front of the geiger counter one by one. He lets the crackling prove his point. "We live with radiation every day," he says. Belfadhel, with Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization, was among the experts on hand at an NWMO exhibit set up last week at the Creighton Community Hall. More than 150 people stopped by for what was the latest step in Creighton's potential pursuit of an underground repository to store the nation's spent nuclear fuel rods. Misconceptions While its purpose was not to advocate for Creighton as a host community Ð at least seven other towns are or may be in the running Ð the exhibit did aim to clear up misconceptions over nuclear waste. The geiger counter booth was one of a handful of interactive, easy-to-understand displays open to the public. NWMO officials gave guided tours and answered the many inevitable questions. Belfadhel says the geiger counter demonstration is not meant to minimize the radiation associated with nuclear fuel, but rather to "demystify" radioactivity. The average person could perhaps understand radiation emanating from certain rocks and brightly glowing lantern wicks, but salt and pepper shakers? Belfadhel explains that uranium oxide was once used as a shiny glaze for Fiesta, a line of ceramic kitchenware, though the practice has long been discontinued. Another display detailed how Canadians are already (and often unwittingly) exposed to radiation on a daily basis through sources such as food, flying, x-rays and even the earth itself. Though the average person is exposed to three to four milliSieverts (mSv) of radiation per year, Belfadhel points out that all nuclear-related facilities in Canada are required to generate levels below one mSv. Among the more popular displays was a virtual touch-screen tour of the planned repository and its related infrastructure, including a "centre of expertise" to be built at or near the site. "It's very detailed. You can spend more than an hour here," says Belfadhel as his fingertips tap the screen. The display included numerous photos and videos. One clip spoke to the safety of transporting nuclear waste, showing a shipping container surviving the impact of a collision between a speeding train and a robust wall. Flipping to a photo of schoolchildren touring an underground nuclear waste research site in Switzerland, Belfadhel says that contrary to what some might expect, such facilities are becoming tourist attractions. The display offered a primer on spent nuclear fuel and how it is stored inside thin metal rods, which when fastened together in pipe-shaped frames are known as "bundles." Each weighs 53 pounds and is about the size of a fire log. See 'Bundles...' on pg.12 Continued from pg. 3 Soon Belfadhel is dismantling a 1:24 model illustrating how the bundles will eventually be encased in "baskets" Ð groupings of about 100 Ð and sheathed in a carbon steel tube. To protect against corrosion, the baskets will then be inserted into one-inch-thick copper containers carrying a life expectancy of over one million years. The model demonstrates how baskets will be lowered into boreholes drilled into the rock some 500 metres below the surface. Next they will be surrounded with rings of bentonite clay, which act as a natural sealant. In the unlikely scenario that contaminants emerge, Belfadhel says, they would become trapped in the clay. Finally the borehole will be capped and itself sealed with concrete. "All these containers are kind of redundant. If one fails, the others will take over and do the job," says Belfadhel, adding that the rock itself is "the ultimate barrier." The four-day exhibit represented what is likely the most public interest shown in the Creighton repository concept to date. Convinced Creighton resident Rod Gourlay went into the exhibit undecided, if not a little fearful, over the proposal. He left convinced it is the right thing to do. "Uranium, as far as we know it, is quite an unknown commodity," Gourlay says. "We don't know a whole lot about it. But after seeing the work they've done and the research they've done for the storage facility, and the process that it goes through, I think it's just really opened my eyes. "I feel a hundred per cent better than before I went there." Visiting at the same time as Gourlay was fellow Creightonite Dan Hlady. He favours the repository for its promised economic perks Ð over 4,000 jobs across the various phases. "The future for economic development is basically wide open," Hlady says, adding that new businesses, health care facilities and jobs would follow not only for Creighton, but Flin Flon as well. "Everyone would benefit from it," he says. Another resident, John Trumbley, wanted to attend last week's exhibit but could not fit it into his schedule. While he welcomes the added employment from a repository, for now he remains on the fence. Other Creightonites like Bob LeSage have grown staunchly opposed. As he puts it, "no one can guarantee an absolutely impervious repository." See 'Radio...' on pg. 13 Continued from pg. 12 "As we all know, radioactivity has a habit of hanging around for more than just a generation or two," LeSage says. LeSage gave the example of a leaking diesel fuel tank, whose environmental damage is temporary and can be cleaned up. But he says a mishap involving nuclear waste would be far more serious. As for the jobs associated with the repository, LeSage says many of them would be highly skilled and not go to local people. Also against a repository in Creighton Ð or anywhere in Saskatchewan, for that matter Ð is a Saskatoon-based group calling itself The Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan. 'Problem' "High level nuclear waste remains the biggest unsolved problem for the nuclear industry," the group says on its website. "The responsibility for dealing with waste is being off-loaded onto future generations who will not have received even one watt of the electricity generated. Meanwhile, the industry continues to lobby for public funds to build more reactors, which will create ever more waste." No matter where the country's nuclear waste is eventually stored, Belfadhel says a permanent solution is required. The waste is presently kept at several locations in temporary containers projected to last 50 to 100 years. The NWMO expects the repository to open in 2035. Creighton Town Council has not formally applied to host the facility but remains interested in keeping that door open while learning more. Premier Brad Wall, however, has all but ruled out a nuclear waste repository for Saskatchewan because of his sense that residents of the province would not be supportive.
