Antinuclear

How come wind turbines are seen as unhealthy, but nuclear facilities are OK?

the pieces are falling nicely into place for a high-level nuclear waste DGR at or near the Bruce site….. But there are many questions, not the least of which is how highly radioactive and toxic nuclear waste buried “forever” is going to be safely managed for centuries, even millennia, when just 500 metres above anything can happen and will.

And another question, .. In this area and elsewhere in rural Ontario many people, including municipal
politicians, are up in arms over the widespread development of wind turbines and their supposed adverse health effects.

Why, so far anyway, aren’t we as concerned about the burial of radioactive nuclear waste of one level or another in our backyard?

(Canada) Wind turbines are trouble but highly radioactive waste is OK?, The Sun times, By PHIL MCNICHOL, 18 Dec 11 I am possibly the least surprised person in the Grey-Bruce area to see local communities near Bruce Power starting to show interest in being picked as the central site for the long-term, underground storage of Canada’s growing pile of highly radioactive, very dangerous used nuclear fuel.

I should qualify
that a little: The only surprise is it has taken this long for a
municipal council in the largely nuclear-friendly communities of south
Bruce in particular to formally ask the Nuclear Waste Management
Organization (NWMO) to conduct “an initial screening” of the
community’s suitability as a possible candidate site…..
make no mistake, a resolution calling for an “initial screening” is
the formal, first step in the NWMO-prescribed process for being picked
as the site for the deep geological repository (DGR). It will be
designed to safely store millions of used nuclear fuel bundles and
many thousands of metric tonnes of highly radioactive uranium in
deep-rock chambers 500 metres below the surface.

According to NWMO’s own timetable, it will be 60 years or more before
its DGR is actually in operation. In the interim the used fuel will
stay in temporary storage at the nuclear sites where it’s produced.

Or — and this is something you don’t hear much about — it might be
buried temporarily in a shallow location at the chosen central site.

One would hope responsible mayors and other members of interested
municipal councils have already done enough due diligence on their own
to know that sort of thing. It’s readily available and easily
accessible on the NWMO website at www.nwmo.ca.
Also prominently displayed on the NWMO website is its close working
relationship with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in connection with
OPG’s plans to build a DGR of its own for low and intermediate level
radioactive nuclear waste. It is to be built at OPG’s Western Waste
Management Facility at the Bruce Power site, where low and
intermediate level waste from Bruce, Darlington and Pickering are
already being stored on an interim basis.

The NWMO is helping OPG get regulatory approval for the building of
its DGR. No doubt the experience and the technical information
involved in that project will prove to be valuable when NWMO’s high
level DGR gets into its development phase, especially if it too is
located at or near the Bruce site…..
the highly radioactive waste will have to be buried so it can be
readily “retrieved.” It’s not clear what above-ground circumstances
might lead to that happening.

I said then and I’ll say it again now with even more certainty, the
pieces are falling nicely into place for a high-level nuclear waste
DGR at or near the Bruce site…..
But there are many questions, not the least of which is how highly
radioactive and toxic nuclear waste buried “forever” is going to be
safely managed for centuries, even millennia, when just 500 metres
above anything can happen and will.

And another question, just to be mischievous: In this area and
elsewhere in rural Ontario many people, including municipal
politicians, are up in arms over the widespread development of wind
turbines and their supposed adverse health effects.

Why, so far anyway, aren’t we as concerned about the burial of
radioactive nuclear waste of one level or another in our backyard?
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3408485

December 19, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized