Posted Mon, 10/08/2012 – 22:19
Seventy-five percent do not want nuclear waste disposal sites in Saskatchewan, says public opinion poll By Hues³ Three-quarters of the people in Saskatchewan don’t want radioactive waste brought into the province and deposited in underground storage. That’s the message from a public opinion survey conducted from September 10 -16, 2012. The study was commissioned by CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) and the HUES3 Campaign (Health, Uranium, Environment: Sustainability, Survival, Solidarity).
“The nuclear industry has not found a way to dispose of the over 270,000 tonnes of high-grade radioactive waste generated around the world. Now the industry knows for certain that no one wants it brought to Saskatchewan,” says Dr. Warren Bell, Salmon Arm, BC, a prominent member of both CAPE and the HUES3 Campaign.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) continues to target three communities in Saskatchewan as sites for radioactive waste reprocessing and disposal: Pinehouse, Creighton and English River First Nation.
The failure by government to ban the importation of radioactive waste (as done by Manitoba and Quebec) means Brad Wall’s administration in Saskatchewan is allowing the NWMO to create totally unnecessary tensions and division within northern communities. (The NWMO is an industry organization tasked with disposing of the mounting waste from nuclear reactors in Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec and the U.S.)
The citizens of Saskatchewan, through the UDP Hearings in 2009, rejected high-level radioactive waste disposal in the province. The recent Oraclepoll Research Ltd. survey asked several questions intended to measure how public opinion on nuclear industry expansion compares today with opinion in 2009. Among other results, it found that the Government does not have a mandate to allow waste disposal to proceed here. 75% of citizens are opposed; only 15% support the plan; another 10% are undecided. (See attached report.)
- QUESTION POSED: “The Canadian nuclear industry wants to transport high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, to northern Saskatchewan for storage. Do you support or oppose this plan?”
- STATISTICAL RESPONSE: 18 years of age or older, 800 persons, margin of error +/- 3.5%, 19/20 times.
For more information contact:
D’Arcy Hande HUES3 Campaign
H: (306) 249-1392
C: (306) 220-0321
OR
Candyce Paul
Committee for Future Generations
H: (306) 288-2079
C: (306) 288-3157