Dodie Legassick. Screenshot
The threat of collisions and the resulting risk of radioactive isotopes seeping into our water system.
Just a couple of concerns the Nuclear Lead for Environment North has on the proposed underground repository in the Ignace area.
Dodie Legassick addressed Dryden Council this week.
She talked about the potential transportation of dangerous high-level waste, stressing the longer the distance, the greater the risk.
“The furthest distance is 2,540 kilometres. The average distance will be, from southern Ontario, at about 1,600 close to 1,700 kilometres. Once you past Revell Lake you’re adding on a bit more.”
Legassick notes that means you are looking at an 18-hour long drive with at least two drivers for a period of 40 years.
She obtained Ministry of Transportation statistics on the number of collisions from one site, Pickering to Ignace, between 2015 and 2020.
Legassick stresses the numbers make your head spin.
“There’s been a total of 47,454 total vehicle collisions. If you look at the number of truck collisions, out of that, there’s 7,010 truck collisions.”
She says between 2015 and 2020, there were 712 collisions between Shabaqua and Ignace, and 52% involved trucks.
Legassick says the Nuclear Waste Management Organization should be looking at these statistics before picking a central site and not after.
She notes the risk of collisions poses threats our area waterways and public health.
According to Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry numbers, Legassick says the total waterway coverage in our region (includes lake, pond and reservoirs) is 71,590 square/kilometres.
That’s second only to Lake Superior at 82,103 and surpasses the third most Lake Huron at 59,600.
