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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-11-30, Page 21Wednesday, November 30, 2016 • Huron Expositor 21 NWMO seeks community engagement during preliminary assessment CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 20 There are three main reasons why the NWMO Learn More Centre in Clinton is holding this open house. First, they have just refur- bished their centre and are eager to show residents their new and improved user-friendly look. Their old centre had easels and poster boards which served their purpose, but ultimately they decided to switch to some- thing more visually attractive and permanent. Information is now on huge, colourful panels attached to the wall; their refur- bishments also include new fur- niture and coffee and tea are available. The second reason for the open house is for people to sim- ply learn more about the project. "For people that don't have a lot of knowledge about the project and the site selection process, this is a really good opportunity to come in," sad Wilson. "We'll have a number of subject specialists here including experts who will be able to talk about geology as that's a very important part of the process." The third reason is to interact with residents about where the NWMO is at in the site selection process with Central Huron, which is preliminary assess- ment. This is where the commu- nity explores their potential suitability for meeting the very robust technical requirements of the project and also the social requirements. Preliminary assessment unfolds in two phases. The first is desktop information, which is the phase they are currently in. The second phase is actual fieldwork which first includes digging one initial borehole to test the general geology of the area. The borehole is not expected to be a repository site. "The NWMO and the munici- pality are basically working together to plan for the potential drilling of an initial borehole," said Wilson. "The NWMO is cur- rently doing a technical review of a number of municipally owned land parcels. What we're doing is making sure these are techni- cally feasible for an initial borehole." Some questions they are seek- ing to answer about these land parcels are if there is enough land, if these parcels meet regulatory set backs and what the surrounding land uses are. Once they have completed the technical review, the NWMO will go back to council with a short- ened list of potential locations that meet the technical require- ments. If council is in agreement, the next step would be to engage the public to work with the NWMO to help identify a pro- posed location for one initial borehole. "We would want to talk to as many residents as possible, because they have specific local knowledge about some of these areas." Wilson emphasized that she does not want the community to see them digging a borehole and think that Central Huron has been chosen as the site for the facility. It is for research purposes only. According the NWMO, a bore- hole is "a narrow, deep, circular hole made in the ground using motorized equipment (drilling equipment). The process involves drilling the borehole and retrieving cylinder -shaped rock samples, called core. A wide range of testing is performed on samples of the core and in the borehole to investigate proper- ties of the rock." The borehole is about 5-6 inches in diameter and will go about a kilometre into the 61 Wilson emphasized that she does not want the community to see them digging a borehole and think that Central Huron has been chosen as the site for the facility. It is for research purposes only." ground. There also must be a preferred location for them to dig the borehole; if there isn't, Wilson said they will continue to work with the public until appropriate. All nine municipalities that are still being considered for the facility are also in the prelimi- nary assessment stage of the process. "There's nothing imminent," said Wilson. All of these things are part of what will be discussed at the upcoming open house on November 30. Residents are also welcome to visit the Learn More Centre any other time of the week; their hours are Monday - Wednesday from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. There is always someone there to engage with visitors, however the open house day will feature a geology specialist to talk about more specific issues. The process the NWMO is taking is very, very slow. These are baby steps for a project that is far down the road. However due to the magnitude of the project, they believe that the pace, determined by the com- munity, and approach they are taking is crucial to the success of the nationally important project. Since the inception of nuclear power in Canada in the 1960's, Canada has produced 2.6 million used nuclear bundles; this is enough to fit into seven hockey rinks of radioactive waste. 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