Canada’s first-ever facility for permanent disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear reactors, to be built at the Chalk River Laboratories on the Ottawa River, about 180 kilometers from the nation’s capital, received regulatory approval on January 8.

After an environmental assessment process lasting nearly eight years, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) decided that the proposed “Near Surface Disposal Facility” (NSDF) is “Not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.”

This decision was immediately condemned by a local First Nation.

A 2022 CNSC staff environmental assessment report had documented the presence of three endangered bat species, endangered Blanding’s Turtles, and several at-risk migratory birds, including Golden-Winged Warblers, Canada Warblers, and Whip-poor-wills, on the NSDF site.

In its own 2022 submission, Kebaowek First Nation, whose unceded traditional territory is adjacent to the proposed site, told the CNSC that it had “not engaged in consultation via a good faith process intended to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of our community.” The NSDF location and technology had simply been announced in 2015 by a private consortium, with no prior consultation.

The CNSC agreed to delay its final decision.

Kebaowek First Nation then led a team of Indigenous researchers, including members of other Algonquin communities such as Barriere Lake and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, onto the Chalk River property (which is normally off-limits to the public). It prepared a supplementary submission for a final NSDF hearing in August 2023 describing the numerous obstacles it encountered in conducting this field work.

Nevertheless, the team’s research revealed a healthy population of Eastern Wolves (Ma’hingan) that appear to be benefiting from availability of prey such as moose, deer, and beavers in the forest and the adjacent Perch Lake wetlands. They found three active........

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