IGNACE — As the Nuclear Waste Management Organization proceeds with its deep geological repository project, the Township of Ignace will have a team of experts following the process.
The township announced Thursday morning that it has selected Hardy Stevenson and Associates Limited as the peer review team to go over the NWMO’s formal project description for the deep geological repository, review technical reports from the NWMO, and perform other analytical work to consult Ignace as the project advances through regulatory reviews.
The Toronto-based consulting firm has, according to its website, participated in hundreds of environmental assessments, socioeconomic impact assessment studies and public meetings, as well as managing $30 billion worth of client projects.
The township needs advisers “with the technical and scientific capabilities, people who have done this work before in the past in other jurisdictions, and so we’re very pleased to have … brought on Hardy Stevenson and Associates, to the Ignace team,” Jake Pastore, outreach lead for the Township of Ignace, said Thursday in an interview.
“The Ignace Peer Review Team is pleased to provide our full support to the township,” Hardy Stevenson partner Dave Hardy is quoted as saying in a news release from the municipality. “We’ve already begun reviewing NWMO materials and we look forward to supporting the township and residents throughout the entirety of this project to ensure the DGR achieves their vision.”
The peer reviewer team includes a physicist, a geoscientist, terrestrial and aquatic ecologists, a civil engineer, a social scientist and a community/environmental planner, according to the news release.
The team is to start by reviewing the initial project description and also review the formal project description, technical reports, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission reports and other documents for Ignace, and participate in regulatory hearings.
Pastore said they will provide information and recommendations to senior Ignace staff and township council.
The team will be paid with funds under the municipality’s hosting agreement with the NWMO, at no cost to Ignace residents. Pastore said the total value of the consulting contract has not been finalized.
The NWMO plans to construct a deep geological repository more than 600 metres below ground for the long-term containment of high-level radioactive waste from Canada’s nuclear power plants.
The federally mandated and industry-funded agency selected a site for the repository south of Highway 17 between Ignace and Dryden last year. Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and Ignace were named as host communities.
