Dear Editor,
Re: “Don’t bring waste here: activist” (The Reminder, Dec. 3):
Mike Krizanc of NWMO is wrong to say that reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel creates nuclear wastes.
The nuclear wastes are created only inside Ontario’s nuclear reactors; reprocessing simply converts these wastes from a solid form into a liquid and gaseous form.
Wherever this might be done, there is no doubt that radioactive gases and liquids will escape into the environment in very small or very large amounts, depending on how carefully the technology is employed.
Up to 20 per cent of the radioactivity inside irradiated fuel bundles is in the form of radioactive gases, which are notoriously difficult to contain once released.
The remainder will be rendered into a radioactive acid solution. Significant contamination will inevitably occur, leading to pipes, vats, building materials and soil that must be subsequently treated as radioactive waste – not because new wastes have been created, but because old wastes have been allowed to infiltrate and contaminate these otherwise non-radioactive materials.
The fact that reprocessing is judged by NWMO to be unlikely is immaterial. Unlikely things have a habit of happening, especially in the nuclear arena.
Citizens have a right to know what kind of health and environmental problems reprocessing could involve. Some of the most radioactively contaminated sites on Earth are places where reprocessing has taken place: Hanford in Washington State, Sellafield in the United Kingdom, West Valley in New York State, Mayak in Russia, La Hague in France, and the list goes on.
