No public review of environmental effects before U.S. compan

[Oscar]

No public review of environmental effects before U.S. companies demolish nuclear reactor on St. Lawrence River?

MEDIA RELEASE - February 2, 2026

Becancour, QC - For forty-seven years, the Gentilly-1 (G-1) reactor, owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), has been sitting idle alongside the St. Lawrence River in Becancour, Quebec as a radioactive hulk. Now a U.S. consortium is about to demolish it without adequate government review and no public engagement.

Last December, AECL gave U.S. companies — operating under the misleading name of Canadian Nuclear Laboratory Partners— a $24 billion, 20-year contract to manage its facilities. These include the G-1 reactor and five other shut-down reactors — one on the Winnipeg River, one on Lake Huron, and three on the Ottawa River — as well as the highly contaminated nuclear laboratory property at Chalk River, Ontario.

The new U.S. consortium now wants to dismantle and demolish the G-1 reactor the first-ever full decommissioning of a CANDU power reactor — and send the waste to Chalk River.

Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility says “The risks to the river, to workers, and ordinary citizens are real. Heavily contaminated radioactive concrete and steel would be trucked over public roads and bridges, through many Quebec and Ontario communities, to the Chalk River site just across the Ottawa River from Quebec.

The G-1 decommissioning project was quietly posted on the federal Impact Assessment Registry just before Christmas, with a public comment deadline of February 5th. The Registry posting, consisting of a one paragraph description and a linked one page “notice of intent” for the “Decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility,” conceals that this would be the first-ever decommissioning of a CANDU reactor. No supporting documents are provided, and the public is instructed to send comments to the private consortium, rather than to the federal authorities responsible for making the decision.

Dr. Ole Hendrickson, a researcher with Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, warns that “AECL could make a determination under the Impact Assessment Act allowing U.S. companies to proceed without public scrutiny, government oversight, or First Nations consent.”

The G-1 reactor is on provincial land, next to Hydro Quebec’s shut-down Gentilly-2 reactor. Edwards suggests that coordinated remediation of the entire Gentilly site, with the Quebec government fully involved, would bring jobs and environmental benefits for Canadians, provide useful knowledge and skills for Hydro Quebec (as the G-2 reactor will eventually have to be dismantled as well), and ensure that the public interest is protected.

In 2016, a previous U.S.-led consortium, also contracted by AECL, proposed to fill two reactors with concrete and grout and abandon them next to the Winnipeg and Ottawa Rivers. International safety standards only allow “entombments” after emergencies such as Chernobyl. These projects are stalled. Public interest groups are concerned that in the absence of any public scrutiny, a similar skirting of standards and best practices could be applied to the decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 reactor. - 30 -

For more information, contact:

Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Tel 514 839 7214

Dr. Ole Hendrickson, Researcher, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, Tel. (613) 735-4876

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This February 5 IAAC deadline has to do ONLY with Gentilly-1.

You can send your comments and insist that the project be “designated” for a full panel review, even if it is only a letter.

Send to IAAC = Impact Assessment Agency of Canada
[ registry-registre@iaac-aeic.gc.ca ]

with cc's to the following:
Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Julie Dabrusin: [ ministre-minister@ec.gc.ca ]
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Environmental Assessment Division: [ er-ee@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca ]
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd: [ communications@aecl.ca ]
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories: [ communications@cnl.ca ]