Initial Project description DGR

I went to the library to see if the hard copy of the project description for the Deep Underground Repository (DGR) was in – it wasn't. City hall advised it was being sent on a “stick”. I originally requested a hard copy because my eyes get jumpy when reading long documents and there was trouble downloading the reams of literature. As well, if Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation (WLON) were being given hard copies and a public information session why were we (like transportation) being excluded? It was posted both on Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) that the document was available at city hall, and also I had been emailed by the IAAC that it was there. … turns out it's on a stick!

However, there is only six days left to comment on this horrendous DGR.... What to do? Haul myself down to the library and compete with the homeless who covet a computer seat to get warm. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich explains my feelings about this better than I do. How can you expect a man who's warm to understand a man who's cold? Another of his famous quotes from the gulag, “It is enough if you don't freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don't claw at your insides”. The homeless and prisoners understand this. Will I go to the library again to get the allusive stick?

What do cold and rock have in common? The nuclear industry has thought they are both solid. Consider in Greenland, at Camp Century, built under a glacier, the Americans generated electricity with a PM-2A, a portable, pressurized water nuclear reactor developed by the U.S. Army in the early 1960s to supply electricity and heat to remote military installations. It operated for three years and was removed. Alarmingly, the nuclear waste abandoned in a sump under the glacier is now contaminating meltwater also mixed with PCB's and diesel fuel. It is flowing into rivers underneath the glaciers and into ocean waters shared with Canada. The Americans were under the illusion glaciers were solid. A documentary of this secret American military base can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdFGpIXHAM4

Here in Canada, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is perpetuating the same myth about rock. Miners working underground as partners at the rock face listen and watch intently. They know the rock moves and can unpredictably break off (loose) causing death. They work with hypertension. Going back into old mine workings, anywhere from only a few years to a century(ies) in age, the first noticeable sight is the fallen rock – from the ceilings, walls and in some cases the rock moves completely in to fill up the former space of a raise, drift or stope. As well, there is a smelly “must” from the biological activity and wetness. I have seen only a few of the core samples from the proposed DGR, but what struck me were three cracks in the core that diamond drillers call “joints”. As with any proposed DGR, the rock will move and fall, water will penetrate and irradiated bacteria, water and gas will escape along underground cracks (joints). Batholiths are not “rock solid”.

Years ago, we did an archaeological survey of Pearl Beach near Larder Lake (in Ojibway, Tegousawabie) in Northern Ontario. The Wabun elder, Fred Pine of Garden River, was carried into the site by two archaeologists, John Pollock and Thor Conway and myself. I asked Fred why was he tapping the rock with his cane. He replied, “to hear if there was any hollow rock”. We knew from old reports of the Geological Survey of Canada that the surface of the rock Fred was tapping was cleared before (1906) mining activity in the area. Another elder, trapper Alex Mathias had told us boulders aligned along the edge of the clearing had been used as a calendar where sitings were taken from the stars and the large land form “Chemainus” or Shamanus in Ojiway, which straddles the Ontario-Quebec border. Historically, I asked Fred how the rock would have been used. He told me that seven people on the outside were connecting with another person in the centre; arms and legs outstretched on the rock like in Leonardo da Vinci, the Vitruvian Man. The group would focus on the bear, what we call the plieades where there is a hole in the sky. I asked Fred why, “we can space travel” he said.

...Sounds far out but there is a lot that can't be explained by science. It got me thinking about plutons and what happens if we interfere with our attachment to heaven and earth by inserting nuclear waste underground. Christianity has focused on the heavens and escaping the earth for salvation like Elon Musk and his exploding rockets. Whereas our ancestors profoundly respected the earth (including the underworld) and used it to join with the heavens. Here in Northern Ontario, they built vision pits in what is now Pukaskwa Park and near Tip Top Mountain. They climbed to Maple Mountain, not far from Bear Island, near Temagami. as well as other high locations across the country. Many other sites such as Machu Pichu of the Incas in the Peruvian mountains, Cap Buji jutting out of the flat desert of the Nordesto, Brazil or Pearl Beach as mentioned were all places to congregate and connect to the universe. The foundation of great religions such as Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity (which also influenced Islam in the desert) started with spiritual leaders such a Moses or the first Dalai Lama coming down from the mountains. In Hinduism, the River Ganges (or Ganga) flowing from the Himalayas is sacred as is the sediment, like cows and their milk, the source of life. Alluvium from the heights of land in Treaty 3, and the headwaters of the Wabigoon and Turtle River systems are also the foundation of life. As such, they deserve protection.

A walkover by an archaeologist and native elder before the four parcels of land were withdrawn for the NWMO for their DGR, and certainly prior to bulldozing into the six drill sites, might have identified significant features. Ancient peoples traveled lightly on the land. What might be a few boulders or a depression to some might be the site of a wigwam, medicine wheel or burial to others. Pictographs on Lake Mamagweiss and on other canoe routes merit preservation. It's good to see where you are walking or paddling first.

What is the best way to control? Prison overseers and military generals know this well - divide and conquer! It appears the IAAC, CNSC and NWMO have colluded by splitting off the examination of the transportation of nuclear waste which is integral (incidental) to the DGR project. Strategically, the IAAC is showering us with so many nuclear impacts in the same period, they can't be all properly assessed in the limited time frames given. So much for the NWMO having to prove their project is safe to the public. The NWMO signed a hosting agreement with Ignace that is a virtual gag order on any criticism of the DGR project. Presumably, the secret WLON agreement is similar but a lot more lucrative. This DGR is pitting citizen against citizen, family against family and community against community. A chill has fallen over the north.

Abandoning highly radioactive waste underground is breaking the bond between heaven and earth. It is a spiritual disconnection. Disturbingly, this is already not a fair process. It will not safegaurd the public interest and future generations. As for the memory stick....