Court docket challenges launched to halt Chalk River radioactive waste dump

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The choice to assemble a nuclear waste disposal facility at Chalk River is being met with fierce opposition from residents’ teams citing environmental considerations and a courtroom problem from the Kebaowek First Nation alleging the federal government breached its obligation to seek the advice of the Indigenous neighborhood.

Kebaowek First Nation, a part of the Anishnabeg Algonquin Nation and certainly one of 9 communities that make up the Algonquin Nation in Quebec, filed a Federal Court docket software for a judicial assessment of the Jan. 9 choice by the Canadian Nuclear Security Fee, which approved building of the Chalk River “mound” on the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories website in Deep River, Ont.

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The CNSC introduced in January it might amend the working licence of the Chalk River facility to authorize building of a near-surface disposal facility (NSDF) on the website, designed to include a million cubic metres of radioactive waste and positioned about one kilometre from the Ottawa River.

The proposed NSDF website is about 180 kilometres northwest of Ottawa and is positioned inside Algonquin Nation conventional land, adjoining to Kebaowek’s title territory, in accordance with the courtroom submitting.

In its software, filed in Federal Court docket final week, the Indigenous neighborhood requested the courtroom to reject the CNSC authorization and to declare the company “breached its obligation to seek the advice of Kebaowek by failing to safe the First Nation’s free, prior and knowledgeable consent, and by finishing up consultations in a procedurally unfair method.”

A associated software for judicial assessment was filed in Federal Court docket on Wednesday by representatives of residents’ teams citing quite a few environmental considerations over the power, which is designed to final 550 years, a interval far shorter than the half-life of the radioactive materials it may include, in accordance with researchers with the opposition teams.

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The residents’ teams, together with the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Duty (CCNR) and the Involved Residents of Renfrew County and Space (CCRCA), additionally despatched a letter to Parliament final week urging the federal government to reverse the choice and to halt the NSDF venture.

The Chalk River mound’s lifespan would include a three-year building section, a 50-year operation section, a 30-year closure section, a 300-year institutional management interval and an indefinite post-institutional management interval, in accordance with courtroom filings.

“Throughout the closure section, a canopy can be positioned on the mound, however previous to that, throughout the 50-year operation section, rainwater may enter and permit radioactive supplies to leach into the surroundings,” in accordance with the appliance.

“In an try and mitigate this, the NSDF venture features a waste-water therapy plant that may launch handled water both into the groundwater or immediately into Perch Lake. Perch Lake drains into the Ottawa River. The mound is designed to final 550 years earlier than it erodes and its contents are launched into the surroundings.”

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Officers with the CNSC declined to remark, citing the authorized challenges earlier than the courts, and directed inquiries to the Justice Division.

In a previous assertion to CTV Information, the regulator stated the aim of the NSDF venture “is to supply a everlasting disposal resolution for as much as a million cubic metres of strong low-level radioactive waste, equivalent to contaminated private protecting clothes and constructing supplies.

“The vast majority of the waste to be positioned within the NSDF is presently in storage on the Chalk River Laboratories website or will likely be generated from environmental remediation, decommissioning, and operational actions on the Chalk River Laboratories website.”

Roughly 10 per cent of the waste quantity will come from different websites owned by Atomic Vitality of Canada Ltd., in accordance with the assertion, “or from industrial sources equivalent to Canadian hospitals and universities.”

Opposition teams, who’ve been preventing the plan because it was proposed in 2016, questioned the company’s claims in telephone interviews this week.

“It’s by no means actually been fully clear what sorts of waste will likely be entering into there, and, the extra we be taught, the extra we are saying this isn’t the kind of materials that must be entering into an above-ground mound,” CCRCA researcher Ole Hendrickson stated.

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“This isn’t simply hospital mops and gloves and shoe covers. That is radioactive waste from the previous 80 years of working with nuclear energy and the sorts of waste that resulted can’t be left in an above-ground mound. The sorts of waste that come from 80 years of nuclear analysis shouldn’t be acceptable for above-ground disposal.”

The appliance for judicial assessment final week was filed on procedural grounds, with the teams arguing the CNSC didn’t “meaningfully” deal with considerations raised throughout the public session section.

A type of considerations cited the Canadian Nuclear Laboratory’s environmental influence assertion, which “confirmed that the NSDF would expose members of the general public to radiation doses that exceed the bounds set by Canadian regulation and worldwide requirements,” in accordance with the courtroom submitting. “Going above these limits will end in an elevated threat of most cancers and genetic defects to members of the general public.”

In a press release, Kebaowek First Nation stated the positioning “is a mere 1.1 kilometres away from the sacred Kichi Sibi (Ottawa River), on unceded Algonquin territory, which holds immense religious and cultural significance for the Algonquin individuals.”

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In its software for judicial assessment, Kebaowek alleged the CNSC “did not correctly uphold its obligation to seek the advice of, and as such has did not uphold the constitutionally protected and inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

In a media launch asserting the NSDF venture in January, the CNSC stated it was “glad it had fulfilled its constitutional accountability to seek the advice of and, the place acceptable, accommodate Indigenous rights in respect of its choice making on the NSDF venture.”

On the time, the fee famous the positioning was on the standard unceded territory of the Algonquin individuals and stated the venture “is protecting of human well being and the surroundings, together with the Ottawa River, and that the proposed website is a suitable and secure location for the NSDF Undertaking.”

In its software, Kebaowek alleged the CNSC made a “essential error” by “sidestepping” points addressed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Canada’s assist of UNDRIP via its United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

“The danger of hurt from the proposed NSDF shouldn’t be solely a First Nations subject, it additionally impacts all people, animals, crops, and waters within the neighborhood. We’re doing this on behalf of our Individuals and all Canadians who depend upon the Ottawa River as their ingesting water supply,” Kebaowek Chief Lance Haymond stated in a press release.

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“The obligation to seek the advice of was breached. We’re going to the Federal Court docket to problem the fee’s incorrect and unreasonable choice. The fee wanted to hold out a procedurally honest session course of knowledgeable by the UNDRIP, which it finally did not do.”

In its January announcement, the CNSC stated it gave “cautious consideration” to all submissions and views the company acquired all through the multi-year regulatory assessment course of, which started in 2016.

“As a lifecycle regulator, the CNSC focuses on steady engagement and session with Indigenous Nations earlier than, throughout and after fee proceedings for CNSC actions,” the company said in its media launch. “This contains, for instance, collaboratively drafting rights impacts assessments with Indigenous Nations and communities, and consulting on mitigation measures to assist reduce any potential impacts of the NSDF venture.”

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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