Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice concerns about the current plan to decommission the nuclear research reactor in Pinawa, Manitoba, located just 500 metres from the Winnipeg River. When the reactor was built, the federal government promised to restore the site to greenfield conditions upon decommissioning. The original plan would do that by removing the contaminated reactor parts from the site. However, the plan has changed.
The federal government converted this important project to a for-profit job and awarded it to the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a conglomerate of multinational companies, some with a record of nuclear safety breaches around the globe.
The environmental assessment process was gutted by the Harper government and left licensing to a regulator some saw as too cozy with industry. Most important, to save money, CNL has decided not to remove the contaminated reactor parts but to bury and grout them in place instead.
If the concrete fails some time in the future, it will be impossible to safely remove the contaminated material. For the sake of future generations in Manitoba, I urge the government to reconsider before a decision is taken that no one can reverse.