Heavy Bribery of Communities – from the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) « nuclear news

Major Bribery of Communities – from Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO)

Frank Greening, 7 October 24

Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) uses offers of money – and I’m talking a lot of money in the millions of dollars – to ‘convince’ local individuals or groups to vote in favor of building a DGR on their land. Take for example the announcement made by the Municipality of Ignace after it agreed to allow NWMO to build a used fuel DGR on its land:

There are of course many benefits to hosting the DGR in the area and these benefits will exceed the $170 million monitoring value of this agreement plus the costs of the Center of Expertise, and thousands of dollars in housing, infrastructure studies and capacity building to build. the community over the years.

As we all know, NWMO likes to say that it will only build a DGR at a certain location if there is a “willing host”. Now the dictionary definition of ‘willing’ implies the willingness and eagerness to accommodate or anticipate the wishes of another person or group. However, I am sure that if you were to ask the people of Ignace if they were willing and eager to organize a DGR in their city, without any compensation or inducementthe answer would be a resounding NO! However, throw $170 million into the pot and everything changes! So it is clear that the term ‘willingness’ really means ‘a willingness to be bribed’.

Now some might argue that my use of the word bribery is too strong – dare I say insulting – but consider the dictionary definition of bribery: To give someone money or something else of value, to persuade that person to do something You want to. In this case, “you” means the NWMO, and what the NWMO “wants” is the municipality’s approval of a DGR. However, I would argue that the true meaning of willingness is that acceptance without incentive!

I believe the NWMO knows full well that, as the saying goes, “money talks,” and that the NWMO appears to have enough money to persuade reluctant hosts to become willing hosts. In this regard, consider the opinion of a certain James Kimberly, as expressed in his letter to the Fort Francis Times, dated December 6.^e2023:

The NWMO’s proposed 2023 budget is $162 million. Projections for 2026 increase their budget to $299.8 million, which amounts to an average of $40 million per year. Their budget is divided into eight categories; engineering, site assessment, safety, regulatory decisions, engagement, transportation, communications, personnel and administration. All the money the NWMO spends in its budget comes from the public – people who pay the electricity bills. The interesting thing about their budget projection is the amount of money spent on the different activities.

Besides personnel and administration, the next big expenses are what they call ‘engagement’. There are no specific details about what “involvement” entails, but I think it’s safe to say that this puts the public on the sidelines for their proposed dump. The engagement portion of their budget in 2023 is $47.8 million, rising to $81.9 million in 2026. Other parts of their budget, such as engineering, site assessment and safety, have a much lower cost, literally a fraction of dollars for staffing and engagement.

According to the NWMO’s projections, they will spend $359.3 million in public money over the next five years to convince people that their plan will work and that is just part of their bottomless money pit….

So I am sure that we can continue presenting endlessly technical arguments against the NWMO’s plans to build a DGR, and I believe we are doing the right thing because we have the moral high ground, but how can such arguments compete with the NWMO’s bottomless money pit?

And…… it looks like Ignace is being shortchanged!

View the South Bruce Hosting Agreement: