And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*mainstream*
Opposition MPs attack plan to bury nuclear waste on native land
Wednesday, March 10, 1999
ANNE McILROY
Parliamentary Bureau
Ottawa -- Opposition MPs blasted the
government yesterday for considering burying nuclear waste on aboriginal
land in the Canadian Shield.
"The government is considering putting
nuclear waste dumps on first-nations lands," New Democratic Party Leader
Alexa McDonough said.
"I met with first-nation leaders in
Northern Ontario on the weekend. Their communities do not want anything to
do with nuclear-waste dumps. The housing, the heath, the social and
economic conditions in their communities are appalling. Is this the price
that first nations have to pay, to get decent services, to become Canada's
nuclear waste dump?"
She was one of half a dozen MPs to
question the government about its approach to Canada's growing problem of
nuclear waste, now stored in temporary sites at the country's 22 nuclear
reactors. The federal government estimates it will cost $11-billion to
dispose of it over 70 to 100 years.
The nuclear industry has proposed burying
it deep in the Canadian Shield. But an environmental review panel that
spent almost a decade studying the concept expressed serious reservations
about that idea. It said aboriginal people will be the most affected.
Almost all potential sites for the waste
would be on land inhabited, used or claimed by aboriginal people.
But Natural Resources Minister Ralph
Goodale said yesterday that no decision has been made on how to deal with
nuclear waste. He said other options are still being considered, including
storage at the nuclear sites, either above or below ground, or at some
central location.
"No decision has been taken with respect
to any sites or dumps."
But a government document, labelled as a
memorandum to cabinet, indicates that Mr. Goodale's department is leaning
heavily toward the option proposed by the the industry.
"The conclusion of the majority of the
scientific community is that the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. concept is
technically safe. In addition, the international consensus, from a
technical standpoint, is that geological disposal is the preferred option
for disposal. Much effort has already been devoted to its realization, and
it is consistent with current regulatory requirements."
AECL spent 20 years and $700-million
developing the concept of disposing of nuclear waste deep in the stable
rock of the Canadian Shield. The waste would be put into containers and
buried anywhere from 500 to 1,000 metres below the surface. The long-term
safety would not depend on continuing care and attention, although future
generations could decide whether it needed long-term monitoring.
"Resolving the nuclear fuel waste issue
will further justify nuclear energy, and particularly the Candu option, as
a sustainable electricity-supply option," the document says.
In its response to the environmental
review panel's report, the government rejected the recommendation that an
independent agency be set up to deal with the issue of what to do with
nuclear waste.
Instead, the government has asked the
three utilities that own the waste to run the agency. Antinuclear
activists say the government is putting the proponents of burying the
waste in the Canadian Shield in charge.
But Mr. Goodale said the agency would be
regulated by government, perhaps through new legislation, to make sure it
discharges its responsibilities in the public interest.
Mr. Goodale also said that government
officials had talked to the Assembly of First Nations about the nuclear
waste problem because the environmental review panel had recommended it do
so.
His senior aide, David MacInnis, said the
government is not trying to force waste on native people. "I want to make
it clear the government has no preconceived notion and desire to force
anything on anybody."
Yesterday, AFN national chief Phil
Fontaine said it is insulting that the government believed native people
would take the waste because it would mean they would get a lot of money.
Copyright 1999 The Globe and Mail
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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