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Limit nuclear waste

Author

Roberta Avery, Windspeaker Contributor, Kincardine Ontario

Volume

15

Issue

3

Year

1997

Page 3

The president of the Atomic Energy Board said Ontario Hydro didn't pay enough attention to the First Nations when planning a new nuclear storage facility.

"You forgot one group out there," said Agnes Bishop at a recent hearing into Hydro's proposal to build more than 1,200 nuclear dry storage containers at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development on Lake Huron near Kincardine.

This proposed construction is separate from and in addition to a proposal to bury 20,000 tonnes of nuclear waste on the Canadian Shield which has been strongly opposed by First Nation chiefs.

The Bruce proposal calls for construction on two important archaeological sites, including possible ancestral burial grounds, Chief Ralph Akiwenzie of the Chippewas of Nawash told the hearing.

"There's evidence of four burial sites within the Bruce. . . I myself have seen one site there within the grounds,'' said Akiwenzie.

Akiwenzie said that in ancient times his ancestors lived on the Lake Huron site of the present nuclear facility. And there's a high probability, in accordance with tradition, that his ancestors would have chosen for their burial site the high ridge that is the proposed nuclear waste storage site, he said.

"It was the Native custom,'' said Akiwenzie, chief of one of the two Bruce Peninsula Ojibway bands.

Ken Nash, the utility's waste management chief said "we're quite respectful of the First Nation concerns."

But Bishop disagreed after hearing that there had been no dialogue between Nawash and the utility.

Her concern was echoed by Ontario Hydro's chief nuclear officer, Carl Andognoni.

"I'm not very happy with the status of what's going on with the First Nations," he said in an interview after the hearing.

Nash said an archaeologist hired by Hydro had determined there was no burial ground near or under the proposed site.

But Akiwenzie said the study, which took less than a day, was cursory.

"To do it in one day. . . there's too much involved, too much at stake," he said.

Nawash researcher Darlene Johnston agreed.

"A half-day field assessment is not sufficient," she told the hearing.

She said she was concerned that construction would disturb undiscovered sites.

"We don't want the work done by bulldozers. It's not good enough to call the cemeteries board after the fact," she said.

Akiwenzie also wanted to know why whitefish, which is a major part of the Nawash diet, is not tested for radioactive contamination.

Ontario Hydro monitors in-shore fish populations, but not the deep water species including whitefish. Akiwenzie pointed out that, during their life cycle, whitefish feed near the plant.

"This is an issue of grave and serious concern to us, but it's not being addressed," Akiwenzie said.

Nash said the new fuel storage facility will add no additional radioactive pollution to Lake Huron. But the Inverhuron Ratepayers' Association, which supports Akiwenzie's position, strongly disagrees

"To allow a build-up of high level nuclear waste at a site that contains seven or eight reactors - 2,400 feet from the Great Lakes in a prime tourist and agricultural area - represents a flawed policy by the nuclear industry," said association vice-president Norm de la Chevrotiere.