February 5, 2024

Re: Government of Canada should halt the construction of a giant radioactive waste mound beside the Ottawa River and respect the rights of Algonquin First Nations

Dear Members of Parliament and Senators,

On January 9, 2024 the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) approved a license amendment to construct a giant above-ground, radioactive mound known as the “Near Surface Disposal Facility, or NSDF, one kilometer from the Ottawa River. The CNSC is widely perceived to have a too-close relationship with the nuclear industry and a tendency to promote and defend the projects it is tasked with regulating, as noted by a federal Expert Panel report in 2017.

If built, the mound will hold one million tons of radioactive and other hazardous wastes resulting from eight decades of operations of the Chalk River Laboratories, a highly contaminated federal nuclear research facility 180 km northwest of Canada’s capital, on the Ottawa River directly across from the Province of Quebec. Studies show the mound would leak during operation and break down due to erosion after a few hundred years.

The NSDF proponent is Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), owned by a private-sector consortium of AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin) and two US-based multinationals. Statements from the proponent and the regulator that the wastes are “only low level” do not stand up to scrutiny.

Independent experts say the wastes are heavily contaminated with long-lived radioactive materials produced in nuclear reactors. These materials are hazardous and can cause cancer, birth defects and genetic mutations. These materials must be kept out of the biosphere until they are no longer radioactive, which will take many thousands of years.

According to the  International Atomic Energy Agency, waste from research facilities such as Chalk River Laboratories generally belongs to the “Intermediate-level” waste class and must be kept underground, tens of metres or more below the surface.

Also of vital importance is the fact that the location of the radioactive mound  is on unceded Algonquin territory. The Algonquin Anishinaabe have lived in the Ottawa River watershed since time immemorial and hold inherent rights to govern and protect all life in the watershed. These rights were never ceded to the crown or the government by treaty. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.” The Kebaowek First Nation, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation told the CNSC they do not consent to the NSDF being built in their territory.

It is important to note that the consortium continues to import commercial and federal nuclear wastes to Chalk River for placement in the NSDF. These shipments are happening despite a specific request from the City of Ottawa for cessation of radioactive waste imports into the Ottawa Valley.

A directive from the Government of Canada to halt the NSDF project and respect the inherent rights of the Algonquin peoples is urgently needed. 

Yours sincerely,

Éric Notebaert, MD, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Eva Schacherl, Council of Canadians, Ottawa Chapter

Ginette Charbonneau, Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive

Gordon Edwards, PhD, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

Johanna Echlin, Old Fort William [Quebec] Cottagers’ Association

Lynn Jones, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area 

February 4, 2024   (voir la version française ici)

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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) recently approved a construction license for a seven-storey radioactive mound beside the Ottawa River on the property of Chalk River Laboratories, a highly contaminated federal nuclear research facility 180 km north-west of Ottawa. The giant radioactive mound is known as the “Near Surface Disposal Facility’ or “NSDF.” It was approved by the CNSC on January 8, 2024. The CNSC is widely perceived to be a captured regulator that promotes the projects it is supposed to regulate, as reported by an Expert Panel in 2017. 

1. The site is less than one km from the Ottawa River

• The NSDF site was chosen for proximity to existing leaking waste sites at Chalk River; it is on the side of a hill, partly surrounded by wetlands that drain into the Ottawa River less than one kilometre away.
• The site is tornado and earthquake prone; the Ottawa River is a major fault line.
• Underlying bedrock at the site is porous and fractured and the groundwater table is very close to the surface

2. The enormous mound would hold one million tons of radioactive and other hazardous waste

• The NSDF would rise up to seven storeys in height and cover an area the size of 70 NHL hockey rinks 
• Waste destined for the mound has accumulated over eight decades of operation at Chalk River Laboratories; waste is also being imported for emplacement in the mound.
• It would contain dozens of radioactive and hazardous materials and tonnes of heavy metals. Radioactive materials destined for the dump include tritium, carbon-14, strontium-90, four types of plutonium (one of the most dangerous  radioactive materials if inhaled or ingested), and up to 6.3 tonnes of uranium. 
• Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 sources in the dump would give off so much intense gamma radiation that workers must use lead shielding to avoid dangerous radiation exposures. The International Atomic Energy Agency says these are “intermediate-level waste” and require emplacement underground .
• Dioxin, PCBs, asbestos, mercury, up to 13 tonnes of arsenic and hundreds of tonnes of lead would go into the dump. It would also contain thousands of tonnes of copper and iron, tempting scavengers to dig into the mound after closure. (more details on contents of mound here)

3. Algonquin First Nations and the Assembly of First Nations are opposed to the NSDF

• The people of the Algonquin Nation have lived in the Ottawa River watershed since time immemorial; they never signed a treaty with the Crown or Government of Canada.
• The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that “no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”
• Chiefs representing 10 of 11 Algonquin First Nations spoke out against the NSDF at a press conference in Ottawa on June 20, 2023.
• At the final licensing hearing on August 10, 2023, Kebaowek, Algonquins of Barriere Lake and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nations clearly stated they do not consent to construction of the NSDF on their unceded territory 
• The Assembly of First Nations passed resolutions opposing the NSDF in 2018 and 2023

4. Drinking water for millions of Canadians is threatened by the dump

• The NSDF site is partly surrounded by wetlands that drain through Perch Lake into the Ottawa River, which is the drinking water source for millions of Canadians downstream including Ottawa, Gatineau and parts of Montreal 
• The mound is expected to leak during operation and break down due to erosion
• Studies predict several types of leakage will occur during filling and after closure of the facility
• The wastewater plant for the NSDF would discharge contaminated water containing large quantities of tritium (radioactive hydrogen) and smaller quantities of many other radioactive substances such as plutonium; these discharges would enter the Ottawa River. 
• The proponent’s Performance Assessment study suggests the mound will break down after its predicted design life of 550 years and contents will be released to the environment and Ottawa River.

5. There is no safe level of exposure to the radiation that would leak into the Ottawa River from the mound

• All of the escaping radioactive materials would increase risks of birth defects, genetic damage, cancer and other chronic diseases. The International Atomic Energy Agency says radioactive wastes must be isolated from the biosphere.

6. Experts say the wastes will remain radioactive and hazardous for thousands of years 

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says wastes like those produced by Chalk River Laboratories, where the federal government operated nuclear reactors and carried out nuclear experiments for eight decades, are likely to be “intermediate-level” and in some cases even “high-level,” requiring emplacement tens of meters or more underground.
• A former senior manager in charge of legacy radioactive wastes at Chalk River Laboratories says the waste proposed for the facility is “intermediate level” and requires underground emplacement. He says the mound would be hazardous and radioactive for many thousands of years, and that radiation doses from the facility would exceed allowable levels. 
• Twenty-five out of the 31 radionuclides listed in the reference inventory for the mound are long-lived with half-lives from thousands to millions of years. (See also licensed inventory)
• The radioactive waste will outlive the facility for many thousands of years.

7. More than 140 municipalities in Quebec and Ontario are opposed to the NSDF

• More than 140 municipalities, including Pontiac County, Ottawa, Gatineau and Montreal have passed resolutions of opposition or serious concern about the proposed project.
• The City of Ottawa resolution specifically asked for imports of waste to the Ottawa Valley to be stopped; the request was disregarded by the consortium

8. Canadian taxpayers are paying but a multinational consortium is calling the shots

• Chalk River Laboratories is owned by the Government of Canada.Cleanup of the site was originally estimated to cost $8 billion in 2015 when a multinational consortium called “Canadian National Energy Alliance” was contracted by the Harper government to manage the Chalk River site and clean up the radioactive waste there and at other federally owned facilities. 
• Since the consortium took over, costs to Canadian taxpayers for the operation and cleanup at Canada’s nuclear labs have ballooned from $336 million dollars per year to over $1.5 billion per year.
• Current members in the consortium are: AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin,) which was debarred by the World Bank for 10 years and faced charges in Canada of fraud, bribery and corruption; Texas-based Fluor Corporation, which paid $4 million to resolve allegations of financial fraud related to nuclear waste cleanup work at a U.S. site; and Texas-based Jacobs Engineering, which recently acquired CH2M, an original consortium member that agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle federal criminal charges at a nuclear cleanup site in the U.S.

9. Construction of the NSDF would destroy critical habitat for protected species. 

• The NSDF site is very rich in biodiversity due to the fact that it has been fenced off to humans for 80 years. Proximity to the Ottawa River and Perch Lake make it a good feeding ground for larger mammals. 
• Wetlands that partly surround the NSDF site provide habitat for endangered Blanding’s Turtles.
• The mature forest on the site hosts three endangered bat species, and several at-risk migratory birds, including Golden-Winged Warblers, Canada Warblers, and Whip-poor-wills
• Indigenous led research revealed a healthy population of threatened Eastern Wolves extensively using the site; the Indigenous researchers also found three active dens of Black Bears, protected under Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
• In January 2024, Kebaowek First Nation wrote to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada asking for the permit to clearcut the site to be denied.

10. The waste needs to be cleaned up but there are better ways to do so.

• An ARTEMIS peer review coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency could provide valuable information to the Government of Canada about the best practices for managing wastes like those at Chalk River.
• In December 2023, more than 3000 Canadians signed House of Commons ePetition 4676 asking for an ARTEMIS review
• Canada should commit to building world class facilities for managing radioactive waste that would keep Canadians safe and provide good jobs in the nuclear industry, safely managing and containing the waste for generations to come. 
• World class facilities would include provision for careful packaging, labeling and emplacement in an underground facility; the wastes would be retrievable so future generations could monitor and repackage them as needed.

Federal government action to halt the NSDF project is urgently needed. An IAEA ARTEMIS review would identify a better way to proceed.

Ask your member of parliament to support an ARTEMIS review of the NSDF project. See the letter sent to all MPs and Senators on Feb 4, 2024 for more details.

Update May 9, 2024~ Three Judicial Reviews of decisions to license the NSDF and provide a permit to destroy species at risk on the site are underway in the Federal Court of Canada.

January 30, 2024

from the Waste Acceptance Criteria https://www.cnl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Near-Surface-Disposal-Facility-Waste-Acceptance-Criteria-Rev-4_EN.pdf

An intervenor in the CNSC licensing hearings for the NSDF license amendment, Dr. JR Walker, included this table in his final submission in 2023. The table includes half-lives and as can be seen below, more than half of them (21 out of 31) have half-lives longer than the 550 year design life of the facility.

Ole Hendrickson and Frank Greening provided this information on half-lives, mass and number of radioactive atoms for each isotope in the NSDF licensed inventory:

Here is a screen shot from the Excel file. Only the top eight short lived radionuclides in the table have half-lives less than the 550 year design life of the NSDF.

The table shows that long lived isotopes comprise more than 99.9% of the mass of radionuclides and the number of radioactive atoms licensed for emplacement in the NSDF.

FOR IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE- JANUARY 11, 2024

Statement from Chief Casey Ratt and Council Mitchikanibikok Inik

“License Decision for Radioactive Waste Facility: An Act of Disregard Against
Indigenous Lands and Rights”

Re: CNSC Licence Decision to Construct the NSDF at Chalk River

We, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, Mitchikanibikok Inik, categorically oppose the decision made by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) on January 8, 2024. This decision authorizes the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) to construct the Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) at Chalk River, Ontario.

This approval, which sanctions the establishment of a nuclear waste facility on the Kichi Sibi River—our ancestral lands—is an egregious violation of our Indigenous law, Ona’ken’age’win. This law, the original Anishinaabeg Earth law, is the spiritual and legal foundation of our people. The CNSC’s decision is nothing less than an assault on our ancestral homelands and sacred sites.

We want to clarify that at no point did we consent to this project or the CNSC’s assessment process. Despite our best efforts, Mitchikanibikok Inik was not given a meaningful opportunity to influence the consultation rules or assessment procedures.

It is clear from the CNSC’s decision that Canada’s nuclear regulator is prepared to disregard federal and international laws designed to protect our Indigenous rights, the environment, endangered species, and the future safety of communities along the Ottawa River. This violation is seemingly committed to favor the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a company with a vested financial interest in the nuclear sector at Chalk River.

We will not stand idle in the face of these assaults. Alongside our fellow Algonquin communities and allies, we are readying ourselves to fight back   legally against any reckless decisions made by the CNSC.

Now more than ever, it is crucial that our Ona’ken’age’win law is upheld and respected. We call on Canada to intervene, retract this approval, and halt any further issuance of permits until there is a commitment to develop an environmental assessment strategy aligned with its international legal obligations as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We will not rest until our rights are respected and the biodiversity of the Kichi Sibi lands and waters, which have been sustainably  managed for millennia under our laws and practices, are protected.

Contact: Chief Casey Ratt
rattcasey@gmail.com
819.441.8002
http://www.stopnuclearwaste.com