[cdn-nucl-l] Court won't hear Ontario group's appeal on dry storage at Bruce

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Posted on Canada.com on March 18th, 2002 and at:
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id={3306CC72-9AD4-4831-B7E2-241BD
6B4D6C2}
Any idea where they found data saying that childhood leukemia rates are
40% higher than the national average near Bruce and Pickering???
There must be more to this than what the article says - the court would
not have made them pay legal costs without a good reason.  Amazing how
clear it makes OPG out to be the bad guy...

Adam

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Court won't hear Ontario group's appeal
  
PETER CAMERON  
Canadian Press 
  
TORONTO -- A recent court decision sends "a horrible message to all
Canadians," says a spokesman for an Ontario citizen's group that sought
an independent assessment of a new nuclear waste storage facility. 

The Supreme Court of Canada said last week it wouldn't hear an appeal
from the Inverhuron and District Ratepayers Association and ordered the
group to pay at least $75,000 in legal costs. The 300-member group had
been seeking an independent review of Ontario Power Generation's plan to
store radioactive waste near Kincardine, 230 kilometres northwest of
Toronto. 

The decision tells Canadians "don't ever challenge the decision of a
government department," Normand de la Chevrotiere said Monday. 

"We just want to make sure it's safe for our kids," said de la
Chevrotiere, who noted that the nearest home is two kilometres from the
storage building. 

The plan to build the storage facility was announced in 1996 and public
comments were solicited in 1998. 

However in December 1998 the Atomic Energy Control Board introduced what
they called "three major design changes." 

These changes meant "a further public consultation period was
warranted," the board recommended in a letter to Environment Canada. 

"There was no public consultation on the changes," de la Chevrotiere
said. "The details of the changes weren't made public until two months
after the minister approved the project." 

The changes involved the type of container to be used, how it could be
stored and where it would be processed. 

"The radioactive waste will be stored in cement containers in
buildings," said Ted Gruetzer of Ontario Power Generation. 

"We hope to get an operating licence and have the facility in operation
by the fall," Gruetzer said. 

"It's the same process used at the Pickering generating station" near
Toronto, he said. 

But de la Chevrotiere said his group's research has determined childhood
leukemia is 40 per cent above the provincial average within 25
kilometres of the Bruce and Pickering nuclear power plants. 

"The federal government is standing by while people living in the shadow
of the Bruce plant and its radioactive pollution deal with the fallout,"
said Burkhard Mausberg, spokesman for Environmental Defence Canada. 

"How are the citizens supposed to protect themselves if both the
environmental review process and the justice system fail them?" Mausberg
asked. 

The courts have also ruled that the group must pay $75,000 in legal
costs to Ontario Power Generation and the federal government. 

"That's a lot of money for a volunteer group . . . we'll have to break
into our kids' piggy banks to pay." de la Chevrotiere said. 

"If the world's largest nuclear waste storage facility does not merit an
independent review, what does," he said. 

C Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press