Toronto — Leaders of Nuclear Waste Watch, a national coalition of 34 citizens groups, are meeting in Toronto for 2 days, and will meet with the President of the industry-dominated Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) on March 3rd.
Nuclear Waste Watch opposes the continued production of high-level radioactive waste, which remains deadly for millions of years. The safety and acceptability of the nuclear industry proposal for burial in the Canadian Shield has not been demonstrated. The current 40,000 metric tonnes of high-level radioactive waste in Canada will more than double unless nuclear power is phased out. In 1998, after a ten-year review, a federal environmental panel recommended the creation of an impartial radioactive waste agency. Instead, in 2002 the Chrétien cabinet gave control of the NWMO exclusively to the nuclear industry: Ontario Power Generation, Hydro-Québec, and New Brunswick Power.
“The nuclear industry cannot be trusted to make an objective recommendation on radioactive waste” said David H. Martin, Policy Advisor for the Sierra Club of Canada.
Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility stated, “The nuclear industry has been showered with federal subsidies, yet no industry has been less accountable to the Canadian public and their elected representatives.”
Brennain Lloyd, Coordinator of Northwatch, a coalition of groups in north-eastern Ontario said, “The nuclear industry spent over $600 million to make the case for burial of radioactive waste in the Canadian Shield, but citizens are being asked to critique these plans with no resources.”
The NWMO is mandated to recommend its preferred option for high-level radioactive waste management to Cabinet by November 2005. Nuclear Waste Watch is calling for a full-scope federal/provincial environmental assessment process, with wide-ranging public hearings, as well as a free vote in the House of Commons on radioactive waste management options and on the NWMO recommendation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
David H. Martin
Sierra Club of Canada
Tel: 905-852-0571
Gordon Edwards
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Tel: 514-489-5118
Brennain Lloyd
Northwatch
Tel: 705-497-0373
