Building and maintaining relationships in a nuclear host community

The presence of a nuclear facility in a municipality requires additional relationships beyond what is typical in a non-nuclear community. Worldwide, the residents of a community with a nuclear facility grow comfortable with the nuclear industry over time as they realize that the technology is safe and provides many good paying jobs. However, a positive relationship with the residents only develops and is sustained through regular, thorough, and transparent communication. Pinawa is the host community for the AECL owned, CNL managed, Whiteshell Laboratories nuclear research and development site currently being decommissioned. Pinawa is in a unique scenario where, for the first time in Canada, an entire nuclear facility is being decommissioned while at the same time, the municipality is proposing that the site is ideal for one or more Demonstration Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to be constructed. One SMR vendor has already chosen the Whiteshell Laboratories site as their preferred site. This combination of a nuclear past and future requires frequent communication with residents, neighbouring municipalities, local indigenous people, AECL, CNL, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, SMR vendors, the SMR Roadmap Committee, post-secondary education institutions, trade organizations, the mining industry, and the Provincial and Federal Governments. In addition, Pinawa is proposing to develop itself as the Demonstration Remote Community to assist with the future building of relationships with residents in remote, off-grid communities to become comfortable with the idea of an SMR powering their community and greatly enhancing their quality of life