Canada Plan to Burn Plutonium Sets Off Chain Reaction

The government of Canada insists that it wants to help eliminate nuclear weapons, yet its plan to burn plutonium from dismantled U.S. and Russian missiles is under fire from the country’s most ardent antinuclear groups.

A small quantity of weapons-grade plutonium is scheduled to be driven into Canada from the United States this summer for a test burn at a nuclear research facility in Chalk River, Ontario, about 100 miles northwest of Ottawa and about 225 miles northeast of Buffalo, N.Y.

Scientists will seek to determine if the plutonium can be used on a regular basis as fuel in Canada’s nuclear reactors. If the test goes well, and if promised environmental and safety reviews result in approval, Canada has offered to burn as much as 100 tons of weapons-grade plutonium fuel at reactors in Ontario over a 25-year period.

Opponents of the project express deep concerns about safety and are skeptical about the fact that Canada’s troubled nuclear power industry is promoting the plan when several of its aging reactors are experiencing problems.

“This nuclear industry-driven project is presented by the prime minister and other supporters as a disarmament initiative,” said Kristen Ostling of the Ottawa-based Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout. “In fact, the project will contribute to proliferation by commercializing the use of plutonium.”

Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, who helped lead the global campaign to ban land mines and is a strong advocate of disarmament, says Canada hasn’t made a final commitment to the long-term project.

“The only commitment we have made is to undertake certain tests of very small, minute portions to determine the feasibility,” Axworthy told Parliament recently. “We live in a dangerous nuclear world. We have some responsibilities to help in the denuclearizing of that world. . . . We are simply testing to see if we can make a contribution to that issue.”

Parliament members from several opposition parties, and even from the governing Liberal Party, have opposed the project.

“Canadians do not want our country to become a dumping ground for the world’s Cold War plutonium,” said Svend Robinson of the left-wing New Democratic Party.

The plutonium shipments will originate at a U.S. government facility in Los Alamos, N.M., and be driven overland, possibly through North Dakota or New York. The date and exact route are not being disclosed for security reasons.

Under heavy pressure from members of Congress and local officials in Michigan, U.S. authorities agreed to abandon a third possible route that crossed into Ontario north of Detroit. Michigan officials said they feared disaster from road accidents and fire.

Greenpeace, part of the coalition of groups opposing the project, says the plutonium shipments could be targeted by terrorists.

The U.S. and Canadian governments say the risk of an accident or terrorism is very small. Axworthy said the plutonium involved is no larger than a double-A battery.

“I do not think it represents a real threat to Canada,” he said. “But nuclear proliferation represents a threat to all mankind.”