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.
Residents would get a chance to vote for or against nuclear waste storage in Creighton if the town becomes one of the final candidates for the project. That's the word from Mayor Bruce Fidler, who said a public vote would gauge whether the community wants a repository for spent nuclear fuel rods. He said he thinks the vote would involve all area residents _ not just Creightonites _ but at this stage has not discussed the particulars with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. Mayor Fidler said the NWMO, which is behind the planned underground repository, will be whittling down the list of candidate communities this fall. He said the NWMO will review its assessments of the first eight communities that showed an interest in the repository, including Creighton. These eight communities will be narrowed down _ Mayor Fidler is not sure by how much _ and may then proceed further into the process. Creighton is now part way through the third step in the process. The town has not actually applied to host the repository, but is instead learning more about the controversial project. See 'Step' on pg. Continued from pg. Mayor Fidler said Creighton would not actually apply to host the repository until the fourth step _ 'if we get that far.' 'We're not committed to anything and nobody is committed to anything until the end of the fourth step,' he said. It's at the end of the fourth step, Mayor Fidler said, that a public vote would be held to determine community sentiment toward the repository. The NWMO expects the repository to open in 2035. It is still years away from selecting a host community. **** At a town council meeting in late June, Mayor Fidler presented a written report of a meeting he attended with NWMO and leaders from the first eight communities to enter the process. His report is as follows: On June 10, 2013, the NWMO convened in Toronto with leaders from the eight communities nearing the end of the first phase of Preliminary Assessments as part of the site selection process for Canada's plans for the safe, long-term management of used nuclear fuel. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an update on the site selection process for the Adaptive Phased Management (APM) project. The meeting focused on the NWMO's timelines for completing Phase 1 assessments for each of the eight communities. Communities were also briefed about next steps in the narrowing down process, when the NWMO will identify the smaller subset of communities that will be invited to move forward into the second phase of increasingly detailed preliminary assessment study. The communities selected for Phase 2 will be those with relatively strong potential to be suitable for the project. For a candidate site to be considered, specific scientific and technical requirements must be met to ensure safety for people and the environment. Beyond safety, the APM project must foster long-term community well-being. See 'Mayor' on pg. Continued from pg. The NWMO reported it will release the final assessment results for the eight communities between October and December. All that time, the NWMO will publish final Preliminary Assessment Reports and a series of technical supporting reports. The NWMO shared with community leaders the structure of the integrated Preliminary Assessment Reports and reviewed the list of supporting documents that will also be provided. A decision document will also be published by the NWMO, outlining conclusions about which small number of the eight communities will be invited to advance to Phase 2 of the assessments. The NWMO will work with each community to share information in a meaningful way. Over the course of the summer, the NWMO will invite Community Liaison Committees (CLC) in each community to review draft Environment and Community Well Being material that has been prepared as part of the assessments. Communities are encouraged to post the material on their websites and invite residents to identify any errors or omissions before the end of August when reports will be finalized. In the meantime, the NWMO continues to review the different streams of assessment findings as they are integrated for each community. It was noted that the Geoscience findings are being reviewed with the third-party experts on the APM Geoscientific Review Group. The communities represented at the meeting were English River First Nation, Northern Village of Pinehouse, Town of Creighton, Township of Ear Falls, Township of Ignace, Township of Schreiber, Township of Hornepayne, and Township of Wawa. These are the communities that requested assessments early in the site selection process. The important contributions of the communities to Canada's national plan for long-term used fuel management was noted by Ken Nash, NWMO President; Dr. Gary Kugler, Chairman, NWMO Board of Directors; and The Honourable David Crombie, Chairman, NWMO Advisory Council, all of whom were present to meet, and acknowledge the leadership of, the eight communities. The NWMO spoke about the nature of work that would be involved in Phase 2 for the smaller number of communities selected to continue on in the process. Phase 2 is a continuation of study and engagement, as sites are assessed for suitability against safety criteria and communities continue to explore the project and potential interest in hosting the APM project. It was noted that Phase 2 would involve a multi-year period of field work and broadened engagement to involve dialogue within communities, neighbouring Aboriginal and municipal communities and the region. There are 13 other communities engaged in the site selection process. NWMO confirmed that assessments requested by these communities will be completed in 2014. Strong candidate communities from this group of assessments will be identified in 2014 and invited to proceed to Phase 2.
