EDITORIAL

They think we’re idiots?

Here’s the story.  A profit-making corporate group wants to build a massive dump for varying levels of radioactive waste along the Ottawa River, upstream from Gatineau. Now they also want to bury an entire nuclear reactor further upstream, at Rolphton. You’ve heard about this, of course.

Both projects are close to the Ottawa River’s earthquake fault line. Millions of Canadians live downstream, from Montreal up. Both sites are on unceded Algonquin land.

“Profit-making corporations” is important. How do corporations increase profits? By cutting costs, and by increasing revenues (bringing in radioactive waste from all over).

Imagine a few of the nuclear projects which have ballistics. The greatest are still out of control – Chernobyl and Fukushima – after years of “solutions”. Technology could not protect them, nor has it remedied the catastrophes. 

So, how will you and I answer our grandchildren’s Fukushima questions: “Who thought this up?” “Who let this happen?”

Why would communities threatened by these projects accept them for nothing in return?

Fifty jobs and “emergency preparedness” grants to the closest municipalities are indeed nothing, compared to the life span and the potential damage.

Almost no one is calling on these research facilities to be shut down. That’s a red herring.

Suppose the consortium and federal government committed to build a modern research university up there, to research nuclear wastes – there’d be scientific oversight, significant jobs, a future for some of our kids, and our region could attract investors. Why not this?

Instead, our leaders are silent. Our mayor, our MPs, our MNAs – isn’t their silence a form of misinformation? Isn’t it an attempt to distract public attention from the caution which must be exercised in storing radioactive waste with a life-time of 100,000 years? No current company will be around then, but no company could afford the cost of radioactive damages anyway.

Hasn’t the world enough nuclear dumps? Thirty-two are considered radioactively contaminated.

One is a huge site in upper NY State, with radioactive waste from the US’ first atomic bomb tests – shipped up from New Mexico. Radioactive waste has been transported for years. This site includes anthrax-contaminated items, indicating the care to which waste is categorized. So, yes, Chalk River’s building waste can be transported to better sites, away from water and people.

At the very minimum, we deserve clear information and the end to silence. If the Ottawa Valley is to become a world-famous toxic canal, don’t we merit proportional benefits – the research university? But “best practices” tell us these wastes must be put into deep, tested, checkable reservoirs away from towns and water. Google “Nuclear Waste Disasters”.

Make your feelings known – letters to the media, and you know how to find our MP’s and MNA’s addresses. Google the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (nuclearsafety.gc.ca, go to Nuclear Waste).  This should help determine where you place your vote.

Last, couldn’t we idiots support a crowd-funding campaign to build a legal war chest to bring all those complicit in these projects to justice?