LETTER

Open letter to the mayor of Ottawa : Chalk River

 

The Canadian Government and a consortium plan to dump a mountain of radioactive material next to the Ottawa River. This would create danger, health risks, and destruction at unprecedented levels. It must be stopped.

There are solutions. Radioactive waste needs to be in a seismically safe, underground area, away from human contact and rivers, preferably in the Canadian Shield. There it can remain undisturbed for the thousands of years required for the radioactive material to become non-lethal.

It is not the time for diplomacy, or apparent economy, and to pretend that measuring radioactivity will protect the citizens; measuring is not protection!

Having a dump that will last a maximum 300 years when the radioactive substances have a life of thousands of years is irrational. It will leak in the river and will inevitably contaminate air and the marine life. Will you drink water and eat fish from that river? Will you risk affecting the chromosomes of future Canadians?

This project is wrong! I am not going to use white gloves to tell you (and your council) that you did a dirty job (by ignoring it)!

An installation for medium-activity radioactive waste is badly needed. It costs billions but there is no other choice. But it has to be done properly.

Apparently, you did not read the Environmental Impact Statement of NCL or the comments by scientists. As a city government, you did not do your job.  It is time to take your responsibilities. If you need help to understand the issues of that project, ask specialists. Have the decency to correct your mistake.  

I swear on the head of my children and grandchildren that I will not accept that you act in such an irresponsible manner. I care for the people of my country.

Ginette Charbonneau, Physicist
Ralliement contre la pollution nucléaire
(sent from Sheenboro, Pontaic)