Moving nuclear waste through traditional territories could face opposition, Ontario First Nation says

A First Nation in southwestern Ontario says even if the community votes yes on a proposed $26 billion dump for nuclear waste within their traditional territory, it would likely be opposed by other First Nations, through whose territories the more than 5.5 million spent fuel rods would have to pass. 

Canada's nuclear industry has been on a decades-long quest to find a permanent home for tens of thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive waste. The search has narrowed to two Ontario communities — Ignace, northwest of Thunder Bay, and the Municipality of South Bruce, north of London. 

Both will vote later this year on whether to build a deep geologic repository, a kind of nuclear crypt, where more than 50,000 tonnes of waste in copper casks will be lowered more than 500 metres underground to be kept for all time, behind layers of clay, concrete and the ancient bedrock itself. 

But so will their Indigenous neighbours, whose traditional territories the towns are within, which gives each respective First Nation a veto.

In the case of Saugeen Ojibway Nation in particular, it means the community again finds itself as the future arbiter of a potential nuclear waste site on their traditional lands for the second time in a few years. 

In early 2020, its members voted overwhelmingly against the construction of a deep geologic repository outside of Kincardine, that was proposed by Ontario Power Generation.

This time around, Chief Greg Nadjiwon of the neighbouring Chippewas of the Nawash, says the proposal by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), a non-profit industry group, for a similar facility has a better chance, but is still a tough sell. 

"I mean, anything's possible," he said. "I think at the possibilities there for the proponent are more favourable, that doesn't mean it's going to be a yes."

Chief among the possible problems, Nadijwon says, is the fear radioactive material rightly or wrongly whips up. He recalls the public reaction to a 2010 plan to ship 16 nuclear steam boilers with radioactive components across three Great Lakes.

That plan called for the boilers to be sent from nearby Bruce Nuclear Generating Station to Owen Sound. From there, a ship would take the components through lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario to the St. Lawrence River before entering the Atlantic Ocean and on to a recycling facility in Sweden. 

At the time, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said the plan would pose little, if any, threat to human health or the environment and it was approved by Ottawa, only to be opposed by 16 communities in Canada and the U.S., including the Khanawake Mohawks and a number of other First Nations along the way. 

Nadjiwon says even if the dump is built in South Bruce, based on what happened in 2010, it's unlikely other First Nations would accept radioactive waste being transported through their traditional territories. 

"You're talking about transporting nuclear waste on the highway system. I think it has even less chance, which is just personal opinion. But, if you think about how many treaty territories that waste would have to go through, I don't think it will happen." 

The process for challenging the transport of the waste is murkier, however.