Huron-Kinloss council/Video

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Huron-Kinloss council has agreed to get more information about possibly hosting the permanent nuclear used-fuel Deep Geologic Repository (DGR).

At the meeting Monday night (Jan. 16), council approved a resolution requesting an opportunity to be briefed by representatives of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), to receive information and ask questions.

Following the meeting, mayor Mitch Twolan said several other Bruce County municipalities, including Saugeen Shores and Brockton, have put their names in to host the site so Huron-Kinloss would be impacted anyway.

"This is due diligence on the part of Huron-Kinloss council," he said. "We want to learn more. This is part of the process that we want our residents and taxpayers to participate in. This process is very transparent, and we want to get as many people involved in this process as we can."

He said the next step is to have council tour the Bruce Nuclear site where spent fuel has been stored safely since the 1960s.

Eventually, there will be public meetings but many of the township residents are not here - they are snowbirds and cottagers, said Twolan. "We want to involve everyone in this process."

He said there are major economic benefits to the community for hosting such a facility - jobs, taxes, and funding for hospitals, arenas, water, sewer and roads. "If we were to host this facility, it would have a huge impact on taxation."

Twolan said the easiest thing to do is to pass the problem of waste storage to the next generation. "I fully believe, and this is just my opinion, that the spent fuel can be used again, with new technology."

However, at the end of the day, the project will be driven by the people of Huron-Kinloss, said Twolan. "We will have open dialogue, become educated and get to know the project."

The long-term management of Canada's used-nuclear fuel involves the construction of a large, national DGR project that would generate thousands of jobs in the host region and potentially hundreds of jobs in a host community for many decades, states information from the NWMO.

The $16-billion to $24-billion project would involve the development of the DGR and a used-fuel transportation system for the long-term management of the high-level waste, and a national centre of expertise.

Used-nuclear fuel is currently safely stored in federally-licensed storage facilities at the sites where it is produced. Besides the Bruce Nuclear site, these are located at Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba; Pickering, Darlington and Chalk River in Ontario; Gentilly in Quebec; and Point Lepreau in New Brunswick.

Placing all of Canada's used-nuclear fuel in a single central location would require moving it from these interim storage facilities to the centralized site. This could involve the use of road, rail or water, or a combination of all three.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012