First Nation wins second court challenge to Chalk River nucl

[Oscar]

First Nation wins second court challenge to Chalk River nuclear waste site over threats to bats and turtles

[ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politic ... login=true ]

Marie Woolf - Ottawa - March 14, 2025 (SEE Dr. Gordon Edwards' COMMENT below . . . . )


EXCERPT: "A small Quebec First Nation has won a second court victory over plans to build a nuclear-waste storage site near the Ottawa River, this time over a failure to take proper steps to reduce risks to rare turtles and long-eared bats.

The Federal Court ruled in favour of Kebaowek First Nation on Friday in a challenge to steps taken to protect wildlife that may stall plans to build the nuclear waste mound at the Chalk River Laboratories site northwest of Ottawa.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) last year received a permit from the federal environment minister to build a low level nuclear-waste storage facility just over a kilometre from the Ottawa River. The planned containment mound, to be built at ground surface level, is designed to hold up to one million cubic metres of radioactive low-level nuclear waste.

But First Nations from Ontario and Quebec have argued that the forested site, in Ontario’s Renfrew County, which is home to bears, bats, turtles and other wildlife, is too close to the river and that the waste storage mound should be located elsewhere.

Friday’s ruling by Justice Russel Zinn will force the environment minister to go back and reconsider the government’s issuing of a species-at-risk permit, and whether there could have been other viable locations for the site with fewer impacts on wildlife. CNL, which plans to build and operate the proposed waste dump, looked at other locations owned by the Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada but chose Chalk River.

Kebaowek First Nation’s victory is its second in less than a month. Last month, the federal court partially granted its application for judicial review on the grounds that it was not properly consulted over the plans for the nuclear storage site. . . . . "

More . . .

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Dr. Edwards COMMENT . . . . March 15, 2025

Friends and Colleagues -

As you may know, the radioactive megadump planned for Chalk River is an enormous “engineered mound” intended to contain about one million tonnes of so-called “Low-level” radioactive waste in a permanent landfill-like toxic waste dump just one kilometre from the Ottawa River. It was planned – initially without public consultation – by a consortium of multinational corporations that owns and operates Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). Last year the proposed dump was approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and the Canadian Department of Environment.

Three legal challenges against these decisions were launched in the Federal Appeals Court. The first had to do with the inadequacy of the safety case and the lack of adequate plans for monitoring the contents of the megadump. The second had to do with the failure to consult the Indigenous Algonquin peoples as required by the “Duty to Consult” and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The third challenge had to do with the failure of the proponent to consider alternative sites for such a toxic waste facility in order to provide adequate protection for endangered species, as required by law before Environment Canada gives approval to proceed.

Although the first challenge was not successful, the good news is that the second and third challenges were upheld by the court. CNSC, CNL and Environment Canada will have to re-open the regulatory process to correct the inadequacies that have been noted.. This does not mean that the existing megadump proposal has been forbidden but that more work must be done by both the proponent and the regulators to satisfactorily address these inadequacies.

The success of the third challenge was only announced on Friday March 14.

The high-security Chalk River site dates back to the WWII Atomic Bomb program. It is located on traditional unceded Algonquin territory. The Ottawa River marks a good portion of the boundary between Ontario and Quebec. The river runs through the nation’s capital and merges with the St. Lawrence at Montreal. Over 140 municipalities, including the City of Montreal, have expressed opposition to the proposed megadump, dubbed the Near Surface Disposal Facility.

The first severe nuclear reactor accident took place at Chalk River in 1952. Jimmy Carter, then a nuclear engineer in the US Navy, assisted in the radioactive cleanup following that accident. Chalk River was the site of two reprocessing plants in the post-war years. Plutonium from Chalk River was provided to the UK and was sold to the US military for 20 years after the war.

The Chalk River site has been described by some as Canada’s Nuclear Sacrifice Area - see [
http://www.ccnr.org/crl_sacrifice.pdf ] and [ http://www.ccnr.org/CCRC_CRL_2016.pdf ].

The proposed megadump is the first time that Canada has given official permission for the nuclear industry to permit permanent irretrievable surface storage of long-lived human-made radioactive wastes. 21 of the 31 radionuclides listed by CNL in the megadump’s “radioactive inventory” have half-lives of well over 1000 years, and 13 of them have half-lives of over 100,000 years. The period of institutional control is expected to be 300 years.

Dr. Gordon Edwards, PhD.
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
http://www.ccnr.org