For Immediate Release
June 3, 2009
Nuclear Waste Too Dangerous:
Another reason to oppose nuclear power
Fredericton – The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the International Institute of Concern for Public Health is expressing concerns as the first of three public meetings on siting a nuclear waste facility gets underway today in Fredericton by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. The NWMO will visit Saint John and Edmundston next on Thursday, June 4.
“Establishing a central nuclear waste storage facility will not solve the problems of nuclear power. The proposal for central waste storage facility will only add to the on-going risk and danger to the public and the environment,” stated David Coon, the Conservation Council’s Executive Director. “The transportation of high-level radioactive waste from each reactor site in Canada to the proposed central repository is a huge concern. This waste could be transported by rail, highway and water passing through communities, farm lands and water ways. Accidents, sabotage and diversion make it too risky.”
“If radioactive waste could be stored successfully, which has yet to be proven, we would still be faced with a long list of problems associated with the nuclear fuel chain. Uranium mining, uranium processing, transportation, making fuel rods and operating the nuclear plant, all involve releases of radioactive contaminants into air, water, land and food. For example, radon emitted from uranium tailing ponds is a serious unresolved problem. Our position is therefore to phase out nuclear power in Canada and stop exporting CANDU reactors and uranium products to other countries. New Brunswick is one of three provinces that have decided unwisely to go nuclear,” stated Willi Nolan, New Brunswick representative with the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.
The NWMO is made up of the companies and utilities who currently own, create and store nuclear spent fuel waste at their reactor sites in Canada. The NWMO was mandated to site and build a central, permanent, long-term underground waste storage facility for spent fuel reactor waste. The NWMO has now begun a cross-country road show to cities in provinces with reactor sites currently holding nuclear waste.
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick, the International Institute of Concern for Public Health and other organizations across the province belong to the Campaign for a Nuclear Free New Brunswick, which demands: 1) A permanent ban on uranium exploration and mining in New Brunswick; 2) abandonment of plans for nuclear power expansion, and 3) an immediate phase out of existing nuclear programs including the abandonment of plans to refurbish the Point Lepreau reactor.
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David Coon, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, 506 458-8747
Willi Nolan, International Institute of Concern for Public Health, N.B. Representative, 506 785-4660