Putting the north in peril

Harold Asmis (Geofish) has long challenged the NWMO's claim that the Canadian Shield is a "stable" monolith.  The Canadian Shield is riddled with ancient fault lines and subject to "glacial isostasy"—the earth's crust still "springing back" from the weight of the last ice age. This movement can trigger "earthquake swarms," which could crack the seals of a repository.

Disused mines and the surrounding rock are rarely as dry or intact as modeled. Asmis has argued that the Shield is "shattered" at depth with micro-fractures. Once radioactive heat is introduced, it can cause the rock to expand and contract, opening new pathways for water to carry contaminants into the watershed.

Predicting groundwater movement over 100,000 years is impossible. If the "batholith" (the large rock mass) has even minor fractures, the highly toxic waste could eventually seep into the interconnected lake systems of the North.

Highway 11 is a primary transport corridor known for severe winter whiteouts, black ice, and frequent closures. The stretch through the Canadian Shield is often a narrow two-lane road flanked by rock cuts, leaving no room for error.

First Responder Gaps: Many communities along the corridor rely on volunteer fire departments. These teams lack the specialized training and heavy shielding equipment required to manage a radiological leak resulting from a high-speed collision or a fire involving a transport cask.

Much of the Highway 11 and 17 corridor runs directly alongside major water bodies, including Lake Superior. A single catastrophic accident could permanently contaminate the freshwater supply for millions.

The NWMO’s confidence in their transport containers is based on idealized testing that doesn't account for real-world extremes:

If a transport truck crashes and is engulfed in a long-duration fuel fire (common in multi-vehicle accidents involving tankers), the structural integrity of the lead and steel shielding could be compromised.

While the casks are designed to withstand impact, the concern is the release of Cesium-137. If absorbed into the environment, it mimics potassium and can be readily incorporated into the food chain, posing a lethal risk to humans and wildlife for generations.