According to the Journal de Montréal, the 365 Anishinabeg residents of the Kebaowek First Nation reserve in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, have halted the multi-million-dollar Canadian radioactive waste dump sited on their homelands. The intended permanent abandonment site, which would hold up to one-million cubic meters of radioactive and other toxic wastes including plutonium, was conceived of by a consortium of multinational corporations hired by the federally-owned corporation Atomic Energy of Canada. The proposal would sandwich the waste in a mound of clay, sand, and an insufficient membrane close to the surface and near the Ottawa River, drinking water for many downstream. The mound is engineered to last 550 years, but Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility points out that 19 of the 29 radioactive substances destined for the dump have half-lives of more than 5,500 years. In February, Federal Courts ruled that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission did not obtain free, prior, and informed consent of affected Indigenous communities — required by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — before green-lighting construction. In March, Federal Courts found the dump threatens several at-risk species. The proposed dump is opposed by 130 Quebec municipalities. — Gordon Edwards, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Sept. 22; Journal de Montréal, Sept.19, 2025
We the Nuclear Free North – Join us to oppose nuclear waste burial in Northwestern Ontario
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