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 The Town of Creighton is taking another step forward in its potential pursuit of a nuclear waste storage facility. At their meeting last month, town council approved a lengthy study to determine whether Creighton is a feasible location for the controversial project. It's the third step in an extensive process outlined by Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is working to identify a host community. 'The NWMO siting process requires a community as a whole to demonstrate its willingness in a compelling manner before being identified as a potential host,' said Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler. 'Any decision will not be made for several years, and will involve the whole community, if we reach that step.' This phase of the process does not commit Creighton to becoming a host community. Rather, it will determine whether the town has the potential to meet the detailed requirements of the project. Feasability studies Beginning in 2012, the NWMO will begin conducting feasibility studies in collaboration with Creighton and the eight other Canadian communities to have shown an interest in the project. The first segment of the study, which could take a year or more, will explore four key questions: Is there the potential to find a safe site? Is there the potential to foster the well-being of the community through the implementation of the project, and what might need to be put in place to ensure this outcome? Is there the potential for citizens in the community to continue to be interested in exploring the project though subsequent steps in the site selection process? Is there the potential to foster the well-being of the surrounding area and to establish the foundation to move forward with the project? The NWMO has pledged to provide Creighton with resources to explore its interest in the project. See 'Neigh...' on pg. 12 Continued from pg. 1 Neighbouring communities, including Flin Flon, and potentially affected aboriginal communities will be engaged during the feasibility step of the siting process. Those communities will also be eligible for funding, as appropriate, to support their participation. An initial, less detailed screening did not identify conditions that would exclude Creighton from the siting process. Creighton began learning about the nuclear waste repository _ to be located underground _ after contacting the NWMO in 2010. Town council formally entered the process in March 2011. Creighton delegations have visited a nuclear waste management facility and met with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Council also invited the NWMO for open house events to provide information, hear concerns and answer citizen questions about the project. Town council's recent vote comes despite Premier Brad Wall's statement that he does not think Saskatchewanians want radioactive waste kept in their province and that unless there is a major shift in public opinion, it is not in the cards. The official opposition NDP also opposes nuclear waste storage in the province. But Mayor Fidler said previously that neither he nor town council have been told to end their work with the NWMO. 'Keep going' 'Until we're told that it is 100 per cent out of the question that we can't do it, we're going to keep going forward,' the mayor said in November. Fidler called Wall's comments 'another block' to overcome, though the premier did say he would reconsider if Saskatchewanians show they are comfortable with radioactive waste storage. The NWMO expects the repository to open in 2035, but it will be another six to nine years before a host community is chosen. The repository would store the country's used _ and heavily contained _ 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. Though it tentatively won't open for another 23 years, the repository is expected to represent a multibillion-dollar investment and spawn more than 4,000 jobs before, during and after construction. Six northwestern Ontario communities are interested in learning more about the repository, the latest being Wawa. Another three are in Sask-atchewan: Creighton, English River and Pinehouse. More information about the NWMO and the site selection process is online at: www.nwmo.ca/sitingprocess. _ With files from a Nuclear Waste Management Organization news release
