Uranium plant opens in west-end Toronto

Residents in west-end Toronto are demanding answers after discovering an unlikely next-door neighbour.

Meetings were held last week to discuss an uranium processing plant in the neighbourhood that some say they didn’t even know existed.

The General Electric-Hitachi facility has been operating in the residential area for close to fifty years.

According to the Toronto Star, the facility processes thousands of tonnes of uranium powder into pellets for nuclear reactors per year.

However, many residents claim they were unaware what the four-storey industrial building actually did.

The issue was brought to the public’s attention by an activist named Zach Ruiter.

Rabble.ca reported that Ruiter went door-to-door this fall informing citizens about the uranium processing plant in their neighbourhood.

Since then, the Toronto Star reported that some residents and a local politician have started campaigns to try and get the facility to leave town.

Throughout the controversy, GE-Hitachi officials maintained that the plant is safe and said they have no plans of relocating.

Flickr Photo by: NNSANews

STORY WRITTEN BY: ALYSSA TREMBLAY