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Creighton doesn’t make cut for nuclear waste storage facility

Mar 4, 2015 | 6:31 AM

An eastern Saskatchewan community has recently failed tests to become a possible candidate to safely store nuclear waste.

Following an in-depth geoscience evaluation from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), the results found that only one site outside of the Town of Creighton could be used to safely and properly store nuclear waste, but could not be used due to geological protrusions.

“The area just outside of Creighton, which they were looking at, they did aerial surveys and a geological study on it,” said Creighton Mayor Bruce Fidler. “It showed a number of fractures in the rock that make it unstable and unsafe for the amount of area that they’re looking for.”

“Safety being the number on issue, so unfortunately they had to remove us from the list.”

Despite this disappointing setback for the town, Fidler said he has nothing but respect for the organization for completing such a thorough study.

“They lived up [to] their word all along, they said if results came back that there wasn’t a safe place to do it, they wouldn’t do it,” said Fidler. “I respect them for that, very disappointing but it’s one of those things.”

Fidler had originally discovered the project through a convention he had attended in 2010 and after passing it through council they agreed to put the wheels in motion to have the organization begin doing its geological study.

“Later that fall, we contacted them and just proceeded from there,” said Fidler.

With a project like this, there would be a certain level of controversy and disagreement from residents, but Fidler said there wasn’t an overwhelming ‘no’.

“It wasn’t outstanding by any means, it was loud but it wasn’t a tremendous amount, there was a lot of support as well,” said Fidler.  “People have to remember that it was just a learning process, and we definitely appreciate the process that we did go through.”

Despite there not being a huge negative response from the town, the project itself did receive some resistance from surrounding aboriginal communities.

Members of the Opaskwayak and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nations were very vocal about not wanting nuclear waste transported through their communities or to be stored nearby.

After the hearing the town’s response and going through the process of having the study done by the NWMO, Fidler said that if the project was right he would go through it again.

“I would learn about it first, absolutely,” said Fidler. “There was never a resolution or anything put forward that we would definitely go and be in support of it, but we would definitely learn about it.”

There isn’t anything immediate that Fidler has in mind to replace this prospect. However, he said that he has looked into forestry-related business.

“We’re looking at possibly some different forestry-type projects or something along that line right now, but it’s something that we’ve got to investigate and research.”

Had Creighton been successfully selected as the community for the project, it would have benefited from billions of investment dollars over the next few decades.

With files from Nigel Maxwell.

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim