http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Nuclear+waste+prote...

Setting out from Pinehouse Lake on July 27, Debbie Morin thought she had only a few allies for a walk to protest nuclear waste storage in Saskatchewan. By the time the 820-kilometre walk finished in Regina on Tuesday, Morin and the other walkers said thousands were on their side.

"From a committee of 22 people, now there's thousands of people who are aware of what is going on and that Saskatchewan is being targeted," Morin said after the core group of 10 walkers was joined by 130 others in a march to the Saskatchewan legislature and a rally in front of the building.

"People are taking petitions back to their home communities, even those we engaged in dialogue with who initially weren't sure what to think," Morin said.

"We were once in that situation. Information is power. Knowledge and knowing both sides of the issue is power."

The 7000 Generations Walk Against Nuclear Waste began last month in response to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization - an industryfunded group founded in 2002 - seeking communities willing to store waste produced at nuclear power generation plants in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

So far, three communities in northern Saskatchewan - Pinehouse Lake, Patuanak and Creighton - have expressed interest, as have five others in Ontario.

While the NWMO argues hundreds of jobs and other economic benefits await the community that decides to play host to the storage facility, some - including the protest walkers - feel potential health hazards far outweigh the advantages.

"Just the whole words, 'nuclear waste,' if you have any basic reasoning, you know that's bad," said 20-year-old Beauval resident Geron Paul, who walked the full 820 kilometres to Regina. "There's other ways to find your own money."

During Tuesday's rally, protesters made it clear they want a ban on nuclear waste storage facilities in Saskatchewan and they won't be happy until it is made into law.

The group was to provide a petition to the government Tuesday, but signatures are still being collected across the province and an MLA will have to present the petition to the chamber during the fall sitting of the legislature.

NDP MLA Sandra Morin said her party is against such a facility and would support legislation to ban it.

While no one from the Saskatchewan Party government was made available Tuesday, Premier Brad Wall has said it is unlikely the government would allow such a facility to be built given that not everyone in the province is on board with the idea.

"This would be very much a provincial issue and while we would respect the fact that different communities do want this, there should be a sense that the province in general is supportive - and I don't have that sense," Wall told reporters in the spring.

Wall has also said the government has not yet contemplated a ban on nuclear waste storage but would not rule out a law, either.

Speaking to supporters in front of the legislature Tuesday, Pinehouse Lake resident John Smerek noted it is indeed a provincial issue and not just one for individual communities to decide. He pointed to the smoke that sometimes travels to southern Saskatchewan from northern forest fires as evidence that health hazards in his community or elsewhere could make it to other parts of the province.

"This really is a provincial issue, not just an aboriginal one," said Smerek, who moved to the community from Regina in 1978.

Tuesday's final leg of the walk took the group down Albert Street to the legislature as participants carried signs with the names of dozens of communities where residents oppose nuclear storage. Other signs contained messages entirely against the idea. "Too unstable for the water table," read one. "Mr. Premier, please put a WALL between us and nuclear waste," read another.

Walkers chanted "No nuclear waste in Saskatchewan!" as they made their way to the legislature.

Debbie Morin expects the group to continue its fight. People from Ontario and New Brunswick questioning storage strategies have already been in contact with the Saskatchewan group, which expects to be in touch with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
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For more info, check out the Committee For Future Generations and the Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan: http://www.cleangreensask.ca/Home/learn-more/nuclear-waste/n...