Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
OTTAWA—The Conservative government says it will spend $520 million over five years to clean up a legacy of radioactive waste that began in the 1940s on several sites, including areas which were first contaminated because of research on the atomic bomb and during the Cold War.
“What this demonstrates is our commitment to ensure that we deal with these legacy liabilities,” said Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, during a conference call with reporters, after he visited the Chalk River facility in the Ottawa Valley, northwest of the nation’s capital.
“They’ve been ignored by the previous administrations for far too long, and we’re prepared to make the tough financial commitments that have to be done so we can move forward and so that the future generations can ensure they have a safe form of energy.”
But environmentalists and local residents are skeptical about putting Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, the Crown corporation which operates the Chalk River facility, in charge of cleaning up what they call the most contaminated area of radioactive waste in Canada.
“The fact of the matter is they’re basically going to do a communications program, but that’s not an independent consultation or evaluation of the plan,” said Greenpeace spokesman Shawn-Patrick Stensil.
He noted the Crown corporation estimated in its last annual report that the cleanup would cost nearly $2.75 billion, taking nearly 300 years to completely decontaminate the area. He said their final plan should go through a panel review under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
“The complexity of the site is one huge issue,” he said. “They’re not sure of all the waste that’s there.”
But Lunn said he was confident that experts on site were taking the necessary safety precautions. A spokesman for AECL added that the decontamination would also allow it to continue offering teaching facilities and medical research resources for Canadian and international partners.
“We’re making sure that we’re not waiting for future generations to pick up the tab for what has to be done today,” said spokesman Dale Coffin. “Every large hospital in Canada has a nuclear medicine program. They generate waste as well, and it needs to be protected for the long term. So we need to have state-of-the-art facilities going forward that allow us to treat that in the years to come.”
Overall, the government’s cleanup operations would affect five sites that are being decontaminated, replaced or decommissioned in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.
Lunn said the government’s new investments are also sending a signal that it supports provinces that want to develop nuclear power.
“We believe that nuclear energy is a clean, reliable source of energy. It’s got a very proven track record,” he said. “But at the end of the day, which form of energy each region of the country decides on is a decision by the province. But if they choose to go nuclear, we’ll be there to support that decision.”
mdesouza@cns.canwest.com