LETTER

LETTRE

A dream without sugar-plums   

 

Last Wednesday night I had a terrifying dream that I pray will never come even a fraction true.
    I see from an eagle-eye view, the completed Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) with one million tons of radioactive waste, a mound seven stories high and covering the size of 70 NHL hockey rinks.  It is located at Chalk River, one km from the Ottawa River. The mound shines in the sun. Snow and forests glisten.
    First a plane nose-dives into it. Then the mound explodes, and boils, particles streaking out like light. I think it has been hit by a bomb.
    I see blackened bare rock where forests used to be: no stumps or soil.
    Next there is an earthquake and crevasses appear in the ground.
    After that, the Rapides des Joachims dam disintegrates and a wall of water grows to a rampaging torrent as it moves downstream. It looks like a wide mountain stream, charging at islands, (mostly submerged), debris pilling up on the upstream end.
    Finally, I see Ottawa and Montreal, buildings intact, but no people or traffic. Only a very few creatures or people struggling to move, like fish in a drying lake bottom.
Georgina Bartos
Ottawa