If you visited the Bruce Power site today, we could show you every fuel bundle that has been used here since the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup.
Sorry to fellow Leafs fans for the stray shot, but the point is that the nuclear industry is the only energy producer in the world that safely captures, manages, and can account for all of its byproducts.
Later this year, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) will be making a decision on a location for the proposed long-term Deep Geological Repository (DGR) to store Canada’s spent nuclear fuel. The NWMO has undertaken a multi-year process to find a willing host community and it’s down to two communities, the Municipality of South Bruce and the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, and Ignace, in Northern Ontario.
This will be an important milestone in the process and we recognize that the decision to be a willing host solely rests with the communities. While respecting the decision of those communities, Bruce Power firmly believes that facts matter and too much misinformation has been spread.
Bruce Power and Canada’s nuclear industry provide safe, clean and reliable electricity to families, businesses, schools and hospitals every single day. In doing so, nuclear not only powers our economy and provides good jobs, it does it without contributing to climate change.
As a nuclear operator, Bruce Power is proud of the work we already do to manage our spent fuel. We have a tremendous amount of confidence in our industry to put safety first, to focus on facts, to do the right things.
Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the world today. We are going to be able to fight climate change only if we’re able to find the right balance between powering the economy and powering our lives in a way that does not contribute to the problem, and that’s why the clean electricity provided by nuclear is so critical to the mix.
As we look forward, we need to recognize that although the NWMO will be making a decision on a willing host by the end of the year, it is not the end, but the beginning of a larger process. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, an independent regulator, and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, will put a DGR project through a multi-year process to verify that it will not have an adverse impact on the public, workers, the community or the environment.
Bruce Power strongly encourages everyone to participate in the process to ensure your voice is heard. It is especially important for those who are residents of the Municipality of South Bruce and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation to be informed and aware of the facts before making a decision.
Visit the community group ‘Willing to Listen’s website’ for facts about the project and reach out to the NWMO with any questions.
