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Ontario town votes to become host for nuclear waste
Town council in Ignace voted to become site of a deep geological repository for nuclear waste after community voted 77 per cent in favour
IGNACE, ONTARIO — A northwestern Ontario town has formally decided it is willing to become the site of a deep geological repository for Canada’s nuclear waste.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to select a site this year where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of underground rooms connected by cavernous tunnels.
The process for the $26-billion project had already been narrowed down to two sites, Ignace in northern Ontario and another in southern Ontario, and the NWMO says that both the local municipality and the First Nation in those areas will have to agree to be willing hosts.
Ignace, between Thunder Bay and Kenora, is now the first of those four communities to make its decision known, and town council voted in favour of it at a special meeting today.
A committee of community members tasked with taking the pulse of the town’s willingness presented the results of a community vote and said that out of the 640 residents who voted, 495 or 77 per cent voted in favour.
Neither of the First Nations has yet made their willingness decisions, and the municipality of South Bruce is set to hold a referendum in October.
