Towns vie to be the final resting spot for Canada’s nuclear garbage – by Anna Mehler Paperny (Globe and Mail – January 14, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

As roadside attractions go, “Home of Canada’s Nuclear Waste Burial Ground” isn’t one you’d normally put on a souvenir keychain.

But strange as the title sounds, nine Canadian communities are in the running to claim it – along with the opportunity to host the country’s spent uranium in underground bunkers for the rest of time.

The towns, scattered across Saskatchewan and Ontario, are responding to a call for volunteers from an organization the federal government has charged with finding a permanent resting place for Canada’s radioactive detritus. They’re a combination of native reserves, old mining and lumber towns and cottage enclaves. Many have spent the past decade watching their populations shrink and economies crater, and are desperate for an economic boost – even if it comes with an eternity’s worth of radioactive waste.

Take Hornepayne, Ont., population 1,045 and falling. Located about 400 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, the town has seen its two industries, lumber and rail, falter and contract.

In 2009, the private owner of the town’s main building declared bankruptcy. The building’s closing the following year took with it the only hotel, post office, police station, high-school, gymnasium, swimming pool, library and liquor store. Even the most basic municipal infrastructure has become unaffordable – the town council is trying to scrape savings out of a $4-million budget.

“Hornepayne is slowly going nowhere,” said Cindy Craig, who sits on an eight-person committee the township struck to study nuclear waste storage. “We need some kind of business to bring that population back.”

Hornepayne is at the third step of a nine-step site-selection process that could take years. But so far, Ms. Craig likes what she sees – decades of construction and up to $24-billion invested in a long-term, high-tech venture that would be among the first of its kind on the planet.

“I’d like to see Hornepayne get that,” she said. “I’d like to see anything.”

Ignace, Ont., a town near Agimak Lake about 200 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, is on the cusp of an upswing, Mayor Lee Kennard is quick to tell you. An iron ore processing plant is set to open up shop nearby; Abitibi Bowater announced last summer it’s reopening an idled sawmill; a wood pellet plant is in the works.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/towns-vie-to-be-the-final-resting-spot-for-canadas-nuclear-garbage/article2302478/