2016 Nuclear Waste Road Tour
Donation protected
Since 2010, the companies who run nuclear reactors in Canada have been searching for a site to bury the 50,000 tonnes of highly radioactive waste they have created by using nuclear power to generate electricity. They are now investigating eighteen different areas in northern Ontario, associated with six municipalities who have agreed to "Learn More" about the nuclear industry's scheme to bury the radioactive waste deep in the earth. They are also in discussion with three additional municipalities in the shadow of the Bruce Nuclear Station, although their "process" is different in southwestern Ontario than it is in northern Ontario.
The nuclear waste companies are spending over $50 million dollars each year on their siting program. Residents in the areas being investigated are hearing what the nuclear industry has to say - repeatedly - and can pick up the nuclear industry's glossy brochures and videos and hear from the industry's speakers, but the rest of the story is missing, like how hazardous these wastes are and how long they will remain so, the huge doubts and scientific uncertainties about this industry-favoured notion of burying nuclear waste, the alternatives both to nuclear power and to nuclear waste burial.
This summer and fall, Northwatch wants to be part of filling that information gap, and take a series of speakers, films and workshops to each of the communities under investigation. We’ll also continue the field visits we started last year, visiting the actual areas the NWMO is studying as possible burial sites, and we’ll share images, stories and profiles of these areas and their natural attributes later this fall.
There are nine communities who are signed-up with the siting process, but many more are potentially affected because the areas being investigated right now as possible burial sites are outside those municipal boundaries, plus the radioactive wastes will be transported long distances and every community along the way will share the risk, willingly or not.
Our goal is eighteen community visits, with speakers, films, workshops and field visits to the actual areas being investigated. By going low-budget and with the hospitality of many concerned residents in the areas we'll be visiting, we think we can do this for $5,400. That will cover travel costs, hall rentals, film license fees, internet connections (for speakers being skyped in), and modest advertising budget (mostly posters and Facebook).
Can you help? We hope so. This struggle may take years, but these community visits need to happen now. Please come with us.
The nuclear waste companies are spending over $50 million dollars each year on their siting program. Residents in the areas being investigated are hearing what the nuclear industry has to say - repeatedly - and can pick up the nuclear industry's glossy brochures and videos and hear from the industry's speakers, but the rest of the story is missing, like how hazardous these wastes are and how long they will remain so, the huge doubts and scientific uncertainties about this industry-favoured notion of burying nuclear waste, the alternatives both to nuclear power and to nuclear waste burial.
This summer and fall, Northwatch wants to be part of filling that information gap, and take a series of speakers, films and workshops to each of the communities under investigation. We’ll also continue the field visits we started last year, visiting the actual areas the NWMO is studying as possible burial sites, and we’ll share images, stories and profiles of these areas and their natural attributes later this fall.
There are nine communities who are signed-up with the siting process, but many more are potentially affected because the areas being investigated right now as possible burial sites are outside those municipal boundaries, plus the radioactive wastes will be transported long distances and every community along the way will share the risk, willingly or not.
Our goal is eighteen community visits, with speakers, films, workshops and field visits to the actual areas being investigated. By going low-budget and with the hospitality of many concerned residents in the areas we'll be visiting, we think we can do this for $5,400. That will cover travel costs, hall rentals, film license fees, internet connections (for speakers being skyped in), and modest advertising budget (mostly posters and Facebook).
Can you help? We hope so. This struggle may take years, but these community visits need to happen now. Please come with us.
Organizer
Northwatch Nuclear Waste Project
Organizer
Biscotasing, ON