Author: hendricksonjones

Hill Times Op-Ed ~ A beautiful hillside

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This op-ed was published in the Hill Times on April 29, 2026

Can Canada’s Species-at-risk Act protect endangered wildlife on federal land? A pending Federal Court of Appeal ruling might hold the answer.

There’s a beautiful, wild, south-facing hillside, close to the Ottawa River, not too far upstream from Parliament Hill. It is densely forested with mature stands of deciduous and coniferous trees and partly surrounded by five named wetlands that drain through Perch Creek and Perch Lake into the Ottawa River. 

In summer the forest is full of birdsong. Many migrating songbirds pass through the area. Rare songbirds nest in the woods on the hillside. You might hear a Wood Thrush singing, or Whip-poor-wills, or Canada Warblers, or Golden-winged Warblers, all of which are listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act. The old trees provide ideal roosting habitat for three species of endangered bats, the Little Brown Bat, Northern Myotis and Tri-coloured Bat.

The iconic Canada Warbler is one of several endangered species living in the area proposed for the Near Surface Disposal Facility, Photo, Emmett Hume, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canada_Warbler_on_Bough.jpg

After a summer rainfall, little streams and rivulets flow down the hillside into the wetlands at its base. These wetlands and nearby Perch Lake provide abundant food for birds and bats and for many small mammals, which in turn attract larger mammals. They also support many aquatic animals such as fish, frogs, waterfowl and turtles, including endangered Blanding’s Turtles. 

The hillside forest is vibrant and green, blanketed with mosses and lichens and full of diverse species of trees including endangered Black Ash. The sandy warm soil on the southwest-facing slope supports three active Black Bear dens. A deer yard provides an ideal winter feeding ground for endangered Eastern Wolves that have dens nearby. 

This rich web of diverse animal and plant life is unique and rare. It likely evolved here because of the hill’s southern exposure, abundant water and extensive riparian zones where land and water meet. Lack of human interference was key. Humans have not been permitted to wander here for 80 years because it is located on the Chalk River Laboratories property, a fenced off, no-go zone since the first nuclear reactor was built there in 1945.

Incredibly, this is the very spot Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has chosen to build its controversial, giant, above-ground nuclear waste dump called the Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF). CNL chose the site mainly to reduce hauling costs for one million tons of radioactive waste it plans to put in the dump. After clearcutting the forest, they would blast the hillside with explosives to flatten it, turning 37 hectares of forest into half a million tons of rock rubble.

CNL is owned by a multinational private-sector consortium that operates Canada’s federal nuclear laboratory under a $1.2 billion per year contract with the Government of Canada.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) granted CNL a permit to destroy endangered species and their residences in order to build the NSDF. According to the Species at Risk Act, such permits should only be granted if the applicant considered all reasonable alternatives and adopted the best solution to reduce impacts on endangered species. 

The ECCC permit decision was successfully challenged in Federal Court by Kebaowek First Nation and allies who believe that ECCC did not receive complete information about how the site was chosen and made errors in granting the permit. CNL appealed the lower court decision and the appeal hearing was held on November 12, 2025 in Ottawa.  A ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal is expected soon; it will determine whether the permit gets sent back for redetermination by ECCC or not. The fate of a unique and irreplaceable wildlife habitat hangs in the balance.

Lynn Jones is a member of Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area. She is based in Ottawa

Federal Court of Appeal upholds the ruling in favour of Kebaowek FN and allies!

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May 28, 2026

The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the Federal Court decision in favour of Kebaowek First Nation, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and Sierra Club Canada Foundation. In its decision, the Federal Court of Appeal directs Environment and Climate Change Canada to “redetermine” its decision to grant a Species at Risk permit to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories that would allow it to destroy endangered species and their habitats in order to construct the NSDF.

For now, the beautiful hillside and its irreplaceable wildlife habitat is safe from the chainsaws and dynamite.

The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision was released today:

Judgment and Reasons – FCA (May 28, 2026)Download

CCRCA comments on Canada’s proposed deep geological repository

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High-level irradiated fuel waste (spent nuclear fuel) is considered one of the most dangerous and hazardous materials in the world, primarily due to its intense radioactivity, high heat generation, and long-lived toxicity. Certain radioisotopes within the waste remain hazardous to human health and the environment for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. High level irradiated nuclear fuel waste has been steadily accumulating in Canada for more than five decades. 

Many people who have studied the problem agree that there is no good solution to the issue of what to do with this waste. All possible strategies have drawbacks and none is guaranteed to keep this toxic waste out of the biosphere for the unimaginably long time period that it will be hazardous.

In Canada, a nuclear industry-owned body, the “Nuclear Waste Management Organization,” is pursuing a deep geological repository for this waste despite the fact that a decade-long  Environmental Assessment Panel Review of the concept (the Seaborne Panel) found that it was not socially acceptable. The NWMO recently produced draft guidelines for its proposed deep geological repository project. Input was invited from the public. Hundreds of civil society groups and individuals from across Canada submitted comments, most expressing strong reservations about the proposal.

Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area’s comments on the initial stages of this project are appended below. Our concerns can be summarized as follows:

– The Initial Project Description does not provide a clear, fully detailed plan for nuclear fuel waste management. 

– Discussion of activities at reactor sites, such as fuel storage (including prolonged storage), and fuel transfer into casks, is inadequate. 

– Key topics such as fuel types, design and function of transport casks, means of transport, and transportation routes, are not well addressed or are omitted altogether. 

– Also inadequately addressed are the following ~  the need for, and functions of, the Used Fuel Packaging Plant, the
Underground Characterization Facility, the shallow cavern for centralized storage, and the radioactive liquid waste handling facility. 

– Repository design alternatives (shaft versus ramps) have not been considered.

– The draft Guidelines are supposed to identify specific factors to be considered by a Review Panel in assessing the DGR project, and provide direction for the NWMO in preparing an Impact Statement. In their current form, the draft Guidelines would not allow a credible assessment.

DGR Guidelines comments CCRCADownload
DGR Project Description comments CCRCADownload

Highly-radioactive commercial waste is shipped from around the world to Canada and the Chalk River Laboratories

hendricksonjones 1 Comment

25 March 2026

As noted in CCRCA’s May 2021 letter to the then-Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O-Reagan: (see full letter below)

Canadian companies such as Nordion, Best Theratronics, and SRB Technologies are doing a brisk trade in waste imports in the form of disused sealed sources and expired self-luminous tritium devices.. These companies do not necessarily limit their imports to devices of their own manufacture. Imported radioactive wastes are being sent to CRL, where they become the property of the Government of Canada.

This begs the question: Are Canadian taxpayers on the hook to cover the full costs of looking after this waste in perpetuity? There is no easy answer to this question.

Canada’s national reports to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management have information on disused radioactive sources. The nuclear substances found in these radiation-emitting devices undergo decay. At some point the devices are no longer sufficiently radioactive for their original purpose, such as sterilizing equipment. But they still emit highly dangerous amounts of radiation and must be managed carefully as radioactive waste.

Best Theratronics, a company based in Kanata, Ontario, has a growing inventory of disused radioactive sources. Canada’s Eighth National Report to the Joint Convention shows that as of December 31, 2023, the activity of disused cobalt-60 and cesium-137 sources was 191 Terabecquerels (TBq). The Seventh National Report showed an activity value of 71 TBq as of December 31, 2019.

A Terabecquerel is the quantity of a radioactive substance that gives off a trillion radioactive disintegrations each second—a very large amount.

Best Theratronics periodically sends its highly radioactive waste to Chalk River Laboratories. Chalk River is Canada’s largest publicly-owned energy research facility, and Canada’s major licensed commercial radioactive waste storage facility. A private company called Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) manages Chalk River, under a $24 billion government contract with the three U.S. corporations that own CNL. 

At a 2019 hearing before the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Canada’s nuclear regulator, the owner of Best Theratronics reported that “In 2014, we had a resident inventory of disused sources at Nordion. All of that has now been disposed of at CNL… So I can report that all those legacy sources, which is over 500 sources, cobalt and cesium, have been successfully removed from our license.”

Nordion is another private company that manufactures and exports radioactive sources, and that imports disused sources from around the world. Located in Kanata next to Best Theratronics, Nordion has also been increasing its inventory of radioactive waste disused sources. Its December 2023 inventory of 5,468 Terabecquerels of cobalt-60 was up from 4,126 Terabecquerels in 2019.

Canada’s Policy for Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning says that “radioactive sources that were not from Canada may be brought to Canada.” Under this policy, Nordion and Best Theratronics engage in a brisk trade in radioactive waste.

This radioactive waste, much of it imported from other countries, is sent to Chalk River. CNL plans to dispose of all the commercial waste at Chalk River in a million-cubic-metre landfill called the NSDF. The maximum activity of cobalt-60 that the NSDF could safely accommodate (according to Waste Acceptance Criteria developed jointly by CNL and CNSC) is 9,060 Terabecquerels. This is roughly twice the combined cobalt-60 inventory of Nordion and Best Theratronics. The NSDF would provide them with a “solution” for their imported radioactive waste cobalt-60 devices, at public expense. 

CNL has stated its intent to put all the commercial waste that is sent to Chalk River into the NSDF. But the waste acceptance criteria for the landfill, which supposedly represent protective limits, could be exceeded by a very large amount. Results of a 2019 ATIP request illustrate this risk (View and download the ATIP response HERE)

Nordion was sold to an American company in 2014. It is now owned by Sotera Health, headquartered in Broadview Heights, Ohio. The 2019 ATIP results show that Nordion sent a waste shipment to Chalk River in 2018 with 34 Terabecquerels of niobium-94. With a half-life of of 20,300 years, niobium-94 poses a major long-term radioactive hazard. This single shipment contained over 1400 times the maximum activity of niobium-94 that would be allowed in the NSDF. The NSDF Waste Acceptance Criteria allow only 23.4 Gigabecquerels, or 0.0234 Terabecquerels.  

Other American-owned companies shipped radioactive waste to Chalk River during the 2014-2018 period, including Permafix NW, headquartered in Richland, Washington, which made seven waste shipments totalling 8.3 tonnes; BWXT Nuclear Energy, owned by BWX Technologies in Lynchburg, Virginia; and Energy Solutions, owned by TriArtisan Partners in New York City.

Results of the ATIP request show that Energy Solutions shipped 68 Gigabecquerels of radium-226 (half-life of 1600 years) to Chalk River. This is nearly twice the maximum activity of 37 Gigabecquerels that would be allowed in the NSDF. 

Americium-241 is another highly dangerous radioactive substance, with a half life of 432 years. The maximum activity that would be allowed in the NSDF is 60.4 Gigabecquerels. The ATIP results show that two Canadian-owned companies alone shipped nearly 70 times this maximum amount that would be allowed in the NSDF: 1063 Gigabecquerels from Noremtech, and 3114 Gigabecquerels from Stuart Hunt.

SRB Technologies, another Canadian company, imports expired glow-in-the-dark exit signs and other self-luminous devices from the U.S. After removing the tritium-filled tubes, SRB Technologies puts them in drums and sends them to Chalk River as waste.

The total activity of tritium contained in waste sent by SRB to Chalk River was 38,857 Terabecquerels. The maximum activity of tritium that could be put in the NSDF during its 50-year operating period is 891 Terabecquerels, a 44-fold lower amount. 

SRB, Nordion, and Best Theratronics import waste radioactive devices from foreign countries that they did not manufacture. Large quantities of foreign-origin radioactive waste, much of it highly radioactive, is shipped to Canada for storage and eventual disposal at Chalk River, where it becomes the responsibility of Canadian taxpayers.

Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area.pdf#_~_text=Canada has not to our knowledge accepted,sealed sources and expired self-luminous tritium devices..Download

Growing stockpiles of radioactive waste beside the Ottawa River upstream of Parliament Hill causing widespread concern

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February 3, 2026

The Ottawa River flows through an ancient rift valley that extends from near North Bay through Ottawa toward Montreal. The area is seismically active, and experiences dozens of minor earthquakes each year. Stronger earthquakes also occur such as the magnitude 5 quake in June 2010 that caused shaking, evacuations and damage in Ottawa including shattered windows in Ottawa City Hall and power outages in the downtown area.

Experts say Ottawa is at risk for a big earthquake.The Government of Canada is currently in the process of shoring up and earthquake-proofing the buildings on Parliament Hill. The project will take 13 years and cost billions of dollars.

Incredibly, at the same time as billions are being spent to earthquake-proof Canada’s Parliament Buildings, the Government of Canada is paying billions of dollars to a US-based consortium that is importing large quantities of radioactive waste to the Ottawa Valley.

Soon after it took control of Canada’s nuclear laboratories and radioactive waste in 2015, the consortium, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), announced its intention to consolidate all federally-owned radioactive waste at Chalk River Laboratories, alongside the Ottawa River, 180 km upstream of the Nation’s Capital. There was no consultation or approval from the Algonquin Nation in whose unceded territory the Chalk River Laboratories is located, nor any consultation with residents of the Ottawa Valley about the plan.

CNL is importing nuclear waste from federal nuclear facilities in Manitoba, southern  Ontario and Quebec. The imports comprise thousands of shipments and thousands of tonnes of radioactive debris from reactor decommissioning, and dozens of tonnes of high level waste nuclear fuel, the most deadly kind of radioactive waste that can deliver a lethal dose of radiation to an unprotected bystander within seconds of exposure.

High level waste shipments from Becancour, Quebec have already been completed. They involved “dozens of trucks” and convoys operating secretly over several months, from December 2024 through July 2025, under police escort, to move 60 tons of used fuel bundles to Chalk River. Tons of high level waste from Manitoba will follow soon.

Since there is no long-term facility for high level waste at Chalk River, nor is there any such facility anywhere in Canada at present, CNL built silos (shown in the photo below) to hold the waste at a cost of 15 million dollars. This high level radioactive waste is ostensibly in storage at Chalk River, but there is no guarantee it will ever be moved. 

(Source p.222)

CNL plans to put the less deadly waste into a giant, above-ground radioactive waste mound called the Near Surface Disposal Facility, a controversial project currently mired in legal challenges. The dump would hold one million tons of radioactive waste in a facility designed to last about 500 years. Many of the materials destined for disposal in the dump, such as plutonium, will remain radioactive for far longer than that.  According to CNL’s own studies, the facility would leak during operation and disintegrate after a few hundred years, releasing its contents to the surrounding environment and Ottawa River less than a kilometer away. 

Shipping containers filled with radioactive waste are piling up at Waste Management Area H on the Chalk River Laboratories property, awaiting a time when they can be driven or emptied into the NSDF. At last count there were 1500 shipping containers there, shown in the photo below. 

(Source)

It would be hard to choose a less suitable place to consolidate all federal radioactive waste than in a seismically-active zone beside the Ottawa River that provides drinking water for millions of Canadians in communities downstream including Ottawa, Gatineau and Montreal.

Concerns about imports of radioactive waste to the Ottawa Valley are widespread and growing.

In 2021, Ottawa City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for radioactive waste imports to the Ottawa Valley to stop. Ottawa Riverkeeper recently called for transportation of radioactive waste to the Chalk River Laboratories to stop until a clear, long-term plan for the waste is available. A December 2025 letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney from Bloc Québécois and Green Party MPs along with First Nations and many civil society groups requested a moratorium on shipments of Canadian radioactive waste to Chalk River. 

Action is urgently needed to halt the imports of radioactive waste to the earthquake-prone Ottawa Valley.

Photo above shows Chalk River Laboratories, beside the Ottawa River upstream of the Nation’s Capital, in the ancient, seismically-active rift valley. 

Senior executive and senior contractor salaries at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories ~ updated ATIP request

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January 2026

A 2016 Access to Information request revealed that: (original post including PDFs of the ATIP documents is here)

  • Nine senior executives of CNL were paid an average of $722,000 per person per year (including travel) and most were non-Canadian.
  • Twenty-eight senior contractors were paid an average of $377,275 per year per person. 27 of the 28 senior contractors were non-Canadian.

An October 2024 follow-up ATIP request (see screen cap below) revealed that the average salary for 14 senior executives was $569,260 per person per year and the average salary for 30 non-executive senior contractors (20 non-Canadians) was $482,786 per person per year.

New owners of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories have extensive nuclear weapons connections

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Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to life on Earth and need to be abolished.

Concerned Citizens and other civil society groups are concerned about the nuclear weapons connections of US-based multinational corporations contracted to operate Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Some new facilities being built or proposed at Chalk River Laboratories are aimed at handling tritium and plutonium, both of which are key ingredients in nuclear warheads.

The current owner/operator of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, “Nuclear Laboratory Partners of Canada,” assumed ownership in December 2025 under a 6-year, multibillion dollar contract with the Government of Canada. It consists of three US-based corporations: BWXT, Amentum, and Battelle. A fourth corporation, Kinectrics, was recently acquired by BWXT.

Here is what Perplexity Pro told us about nuclear weapons connections of BWXT, Amentum and Batelle.

BWXT

BWXT has significant connections to U.S. nuclear weapons programs through its work with government agencies and defense contracts.bwxt+1​

Key Contracts

BWXT manages high-consequence nuclear operations for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. In 2025, it secured a $1.5 billion contract from NNSA to build a uranium enrichment facility for defense applications, including tritium production—a key component in nuclear weapons.reuters+2​

The company manufactures nuclear reactor components for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers, including Virginia-class and Columbia-class vessels, under multi-billion-dollar contracts like a $2.6 billion award in 2025. BWXT holds licenses for depleted uranium fabrication for defense and has handled highly enriched uranium from down-blended nuclear weapon cores.reddit+3​

Historical Context

BWXT was previously involved in tritium production for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Subsidiaries like Nuclear Fuel Services support these government programs.dontbankonthebomb+1​

Amentum

Amentum has substantial nuclear weapons connections through U.S. and UK defense contracts for weapons facilities, plutonium processing, tritium operations, and national security sites.amentum+2​

U.S. Weapons Complex

Amentum manages the Pantex Plant (nuclear weapons assembly/disassembly) and Y-12 National Security Complex (uranium components for weapons) under a $28 billion NNSA contract via NPOne JV. It supports Los Alamos plutonium facilities, Savannah River pit production, and naval nuclear propulsion for ballistic missile submarines.amentum+3​

Plutonium and Remediation

The company decommissions plutonium-contaminated facilities at U.S. sites like Hanford’s Plutonium Finishing Plant and UK’s Low Level Waste Repository, plus Portsmouth uranium enrichment for weapons.amentum+2​

UK AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment)Involvement

Amentum serves as Delivery Partner for AWE’s Enriched Uranium Components Programme at Aldermaston, handling enriched uranium for UK nuclear warheads, decommissioning gloveboxes, and program management.amentum+2​

Battelle

Battelle Memorial Institute has deep historical and ongoing connections to nuclear weapons programs, including direct contributions to the Manhattan Project and management of key NNSA national laboratories involved in weapons research.battelle+2​

Manhattan Project Role

During World War II, 400 Battelle researchers fabricated plutonium from uranium for atomic bomb cores. This work positioned Battelle as a leader in nuclear research, including extruding uranium fuel for early reactors at Oak Ridge.wikipedia+2​

National Labs Management

Battelle manages or co-manages eight DOE national labs central to nuclear security, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory (plutonium pits for weapons via Triad National Security, LLC), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Savannah River National Laboratory (nuclear materials management). These labs support stockpile stewardship, pit production, and nuclear deterrence under NNSA.battelle+4​

Additional Ties

Battelle developed nuclear fuel rods for naval reactors like the USS Nautilus and provided Environment, Health and Safety support at Pantex Plant, the primary site for weapons assembly/disassembly. It oversees chemical weapons demilitarization and biodefense tied to nuclear security missions.battelle+3​

References:

BWXT

  1. https://www.bwxt.com/sectors/complex-site-operations/nuclear-operations/
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWX_Technologies
  3. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bwx-technologies-secures-15-billion-contract-us-nuclear-weapons-agency-2025-09-16/
  4. https://www.ans.org/news/2025-09-17/article-7374/nnsa-awards-bwxt-15b-defense-fuels-contract/
  5. https://www.reddit.com/r/UraniumSqueeze/comments/1nz1a3c/is_bwxt_the_overlooked_sleeping_nuclear_tech/
  6. https://www.bwxt.com/bwxt-announces-2-6-billion-in-contracts-for-naval-nuclear-reactor-components/
  7. https://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/bwxt/
  8. https://cardinalnews.org/2024/07/05/lynchburg-firm-aims-to-advance-nuclear-technology-in-space/
  9. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/bwxt-launches-advanced-nuclear-fuel-subsidiary
  10. https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/2025/Q4/purdue-bwxt-forge-strategic-collaboration-to-advance-nuclear-innovation

Amentum

  1. https://www.amentum.com/our-capabilities/mission-modernization-sustainment/nuclear-security-and-deterrence/
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amentum_(company)
  3. https://www.amentum.com/news/amentum-team-awarded-28-billion-y-12-national-security-complex-and-pantex-plant-management-contract/
  4. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bwx-technologies-secures-15-billion-contract-us-nuclear-weapons-agency-2025-09-16/
  5. https://www.amentum.com/project/supporting-our-nations-weapons-defense-system-with-advanced-conduct-of-operations-and-best-in-class-operational-readiness-at-los-alamos-national-laboratory-lanl/
  6. https://www.amentum.com/news/amentum-team-awarded-21-billion-integrated-mission-completion-contract-at-the-savannah-river-site/
  7. https://www.amentum.com/project/decommissioning-plutonium-contaminated-material-facilities-at-the-llwr-uk/
  8. https://www.amentum.com/news/amentum-led-jv-helps-treat-and-dispose-of-nuclear-waste-in-hanford/
  9. https://virginiabusiness.com/amentum-led-team-receives-5-87b-nuke-cleanup-contract/
  10. https://www.amentum.com/project/enriched-uranium-components-programme/
  11. https://www.bwxt.com/sectors/complex-site-operations/nuclear-operations/
  12. https://www.onr.org.uk/publications/regulatory-reports/site-specific-reports/inspection-records/2024/08/atomic-weapons-establishment-aldermaston-inspection-id-53309

Battelle

  1. https://www.battelle.org/history/space-age
  2. https://www.battelle.org/laboratory-management
  3. https://www.bwxt.com/sectors/complex-site-operations/nuclear-operations/
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battelle_Memorial_Institute
  5. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-07/DEC%20-%20Battelle%20%20Memorial%20Institute%20signed%201-23-1983.pdf
  6. https://matternews.org/voices/anduril-teach-in-highlights-ohio-states-long-developed-military-connections/
  7. https://www.latinousa.org/2025/10/28/armsracelosalamos/
  8. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bwx-technologies-secures-15-billion-contract-us-nuclear-weapons-agency-2025-09-16/
  9. https://www.battelle.org/markets/national-security/cbrne-defense/threat-awareness
  10. https://www.ornl.gov/content/who-we-are-and-who-we-arent
  11. https://news.tamus.edu/texas-am-system-part-of-bwxt-led-team-awarded-30-billion-management-and-operating-contract-for-national-nuclear-security-administrations-pantex-plant/
  12. https://inside.battelle.org/blog-details/operating-large-research-infrastructure-requires-a-wide-variety-of-skilled-professionals

The photo above shows Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, 180 km upstream of Ottawa Gatineau on the Ottawa River. It is now wholly owned by US based corporations with extensive ties to nuclear weapons production.

CNL Environmental Remediation Management Update ~ June 2025

hendricksonjones 1 Comment

December 2025

The two page document below is excerpted from an environmental remediation report that was presented to members of the CNL Environmental Stewardship Council on June 26, 2025.

The photo below from the report shows the growing collection of shipping containers full of radioactive wastes being amassed at Waste Management Area H on the Chalk River Laboratories property. As reported verbally at the meeting, the number of containers was approximately 1500 in June 2025 with more arriving regularly.

CNL ERM Update June 2025Download

Letter to Mark Carney ~ Pour une gestion transparente et responsable des déchets radioactifs

hendricksonjones 1 Comment

December 12, 2025

English version follows below.

Lettre-Déchets-Nucléaires-PatrickBonin_vfDownload

Towards a transparent and responsible management of radioactive waste

December 2 2025

Several political parties and civil society organizations are dismayed to learn thatCanadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has decided to consolidate radioactive waste (forwhich the federal government is responsible) at the Chalk River Laboratories site. This decision was made without consultation with First Nations or the public, and without parliamentary debate. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is only a private contractor,not a government agency.

For the population, there is no public accountability and concern is growing. Why concentrate everything at Chalk River? CNL is not intending to permanently store high- or intermediate-level waste at Chalk River. Those wastes will likely be moved again. Chalk River is an unsuitable location for radioactive waste consolidation because it islocated on the Ottawa River and the area is prone to seismic tremors.

Used nuclear fuel has the highest level of radioactivity; it is being transported to ChalkRiver from nuclear reactors in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec for interim storage pending the construction of a proposed deep geological repository (DGR). CNL intendsto have the same used fuel eventually transported to the DGR. But such a repositorystill does not exist and may never be licensed or approved. Whether the DGR isultimately built or not, issues surrounding the transportation of radioactive waste have to be addressed.

There are increased risks and costs of transporting used fuel twice: first from thenuclear power plants to Chalk River, and then from Chalk River to a second destination.This leads to extra safety risks and a waste of public money. The government is justmoving the waste around at great expense and added risk without solving the problempermanently, as there is still no proven safe solution despite 45 years of effort.

The proposed transportation of intermediate-level waste to Chalk River from thedecommissioning of nuclear reactors is similarly ill-advised.

Public concern was heightened by the news of the secretive transport of tonnes of usednuclear fuel from Bécancour, Quebec, to Chalk River during the summer of 2025, alongpublic roads and bridges, without any explicit authorization or opportunity for publicconsultation or even proper notification.

• We call on the federal government for a moratorium on the shipment of Canadianradioactive waste to Chalk River because of the increasing risk of radioactivecontamination and the lack of an acceptable due process.

• We call on the federal government to ban all imports of radioactive waste from othercountries, including disused medical sources, discarded tritium light sources, or usednuclear fuel.

• We call on the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to conduct a strategicassessment of the transportation of high- and intermediate-level radioactive waste onpublic highways, in accordance with section 95 of the Impact Assessment Act. Theresults of this assessment would contribute to future impact assessments of nuclearfacilities. The goal would be to examine, for example, the cumulative impact at ChalkRiver and to provide a framework for upcoming environmental assessments of nuclearpower plants and reactor decommissioning projects.

Patrick Bonin, M.P.Bloc Québécois critic for the Environment and Climate Change

Elizabeth May, M.P.Green Party of Canada

André BélangerFondation Rivières

Alain BranchaudSNAP Québec

Ginette Charbonneau Physicist and spokesperson for le Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive

Et al….

Ottawa River Nuclear Waste Dump ~ Species-at-Risk Appeal hearing and rally November 12, 2025

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A hearing this Wednesday November 12 in the Federal Court of Appeal, before a panel of three judges, will be a test of Canada’s commitment to protect threatened and endangered species and may determine whether the giant Ottawa River nuclear waste dump can be built or not. You can watch the hearing on Zoom by registering at this link, and you are also invited to a rally, “Stand up for Wildlife,” from noon to 2 pm outside the courtroom on Sparks St. in Ottawa.

Background:

Earlier this year we celebrated the successful legal challenge to the granting of a Species-at-Risk permit to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) for the construction of the nuclear waste dump known as the “NSDF.” The legal challenge was brought by Kebaowek First Nation, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and Sierra Club Canada Foundation.

You may recall that CNL is owned by a multinational private-sector consortium that operates Canada’s federal nuclear labs under a $1.6 billion per year contract with the Government of Canada. CNL needed a Species-at-risk permit in order to construct its controversial, giant, above-ground nuclear waste dump beside the Ottawa River because the site they chose for the dump is on federal land smack dab in the middle of irreplaceable wildlife habitat that is home to many species at risk. A permit would allow CNL to destroy habitat and residences for threatened and endangered species in order to construct its giant dump.

In order to get a permit, a proponent must prove that it carefully considered all possible alternatives and chose the one with the least impact on endangered species. CNL did not do this. In fact, it is on record as saying it chose the location because it would reduce transportation costs. In his ruling issued on March 14, 2025, Justice Russel Zinn said the environment minister’s issuing of the species-at-risk permit was “unreasonable due to fatal flaws” in interpreting and applying the federal Species at Risk Act, adding that the issuing of the permit must be reconsidered. 

Unfortunately for threatened wildlife and for Canadian taxpayers, who foot the bill for everything the multinational consortium does under its contract with the government, the case was appealed by CNL. Hence, the evidence will be reviewed again on November 12, this time in the federal court of appeal, by a panel of three judges.

The legal case here is fairly cut and dried; it will be interesting to see how it plays out. But behind the straightforward legal arguments lies a shocking story of disregard for wildlife that we discovered when we applied for the initial judicial review and received 4,000 pages of material connected with the permit application. Among other things, we learned that CNL knew that the site was very rich in biodiversity, but chose it anyway. The site is located on a south facing densely forested hillside that rises 140 feet above five named wetlands at its base, critical habitat for endangered Blanding’s turtles. The forest stands have old growth characteristics and provide prime habitat for endangered bats and songbirds such as the Canada Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler and Eastern Whip-poor-will. To create a flat surface for the NSDF, clear cutting and extensive blasting would convert 28 hectares of forested hillside into 170,000 cubic metres of rock, with unknown but likely adverse effects on the surrounding wetlands. More than 10,000 mature trees would be cut down, including provincially-endangered Black Ash trees. Kebaowek First Nation found three active bear dens on the site, and evidence of extensive use of the site by threatened Eastern Wolves. Both bears and wolves are species of great cultural importance to Algonquin peoples. 

Seethis post on the Concerned Citizens website, for more detail on CNL’s disregard for wildlife in its choice of a site for the NSDF.

The beautiful artwork below is by Destiny Cote of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. Eastern Wolves are one of the threatened species that would be adversely affected by the NSDF.