IGNACE – John Saunders is happy to see the Township of Ignace continuing as a potential host community for a nuclear waste repository, even though the waste would be kept near his summer home.
“I base my findings here on facts presented to me by NWMO, and I respect their technical findings,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“Their technical findings have convinced me that the area would be a good place for their project.”
Saunders made his remarks soon after Ignace councillors unanimously approved a resolution to “proceed as a potential host community” in the site selection process for a deep geological repository.
A deep geological repository, or DGR, is a large facility hundreds of metres below ground for the storage of used nuclear fuel.
One has been built in Finland for that country’s nuclear power producers, and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) wants to build one for Canada.
Two sites are on the organization’s shortlist for the DGR: the Revell site west of Ignace and a location within the boundaries of South Bruce, Ont., near Lake Huron.
The industry-funded NWMO has said it will choose between the two places by the end of 2024.
One of the organization’s key criteria in site selection is that there be a willing host community.
Ignace council’s decision made it the first municipality to declare itself willing; South Bruce will hold a referendum on the issue in late October.
Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, on whose traditional territory the Ignace-area site lies, intends to hold a member vote on the issue but has not set a time or date for that vote.
Saugeen Ojibway Nation, which has the South Bruce site within its traditional territory, has said it won’t hold a vote until next year.
Saunders has 160 acres of land near Revell Lake that he and his young daughters use as home base every summer. (During the rest of the year they live in southwestern Manitoba.)
That makes them likely the DGR’s closest neighbour if it is built at the Northwestern Ontario location.
Saunders said the family’s boreal forest hideaway has changed noticeably since he bought the property around 2010.
“There’s been a change (in the number) of people coming to the area,” he said.
“When we first bought it, the area was secluded – really no movement, much more enjoyable. But yeah, we’re enduring change and we expect it in the future.”
Saunders said he has met with NWMO officials and “expressed the concern that I have with a few situations, and they are willing to look at how to address them. Hopefully, we can come to a compromise.
“I know the project’s not going to start probably for another 10 years. I’m looking at more of my daughters’ well-being and fulfillment.
“So, yeah, we’ll have to come to some type of compromise to either relocate or work with them in their design for the project” if the site west of Ignace is selected, he said.
DGR construction and operations nearby would certainly “be a change from having a natural environment,” he said.
“We’re enduring change now. We have been for a few years. If the project does come, it’ll probably mean more noise, more people, maybe trains.”
However, he said he would still like to see the NWMO choose the Northwestern Ontario site.
