By Barb McKay

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) will hold open houses in Ripley next week to educate the public about Canada’s plan for the long-term management of nuclear fuel.

The open houses will be held Sept. 11 and 12 from noon until 8 p.m. at the Ripley Huron Community Centre. Representatives from NWMO will be on hand to answer questions about deep geological repositories for spent fuel and about the site selection process for the used fuel storage project.

Huron-Kinloss Township has going through a process with the NWMO to learn more about the project and recently learned that it has the space and appropriate geological conditions to potentially host the project.

The screening process to select a host community is expected to take up to 10 years. The DGR, itself, won’t be constructed for 20 to 30 years.

*The Kincardine Family Health Team will hold an open house in Ripley on Sept. 6 to introduce programs and services that will be available to Huron-Kinloss residents.

The open house will be held in the upper level of the Ripley Huron Community Centre from 6 to 8 p.m. Residents can be referred by their family physicians to receive a number of services free of charge, including occupational therapy, diabetes education and counselling.

Members of the family health team, including CEO Gerry Glover; executive assistant Elyse Dewar; nurse practitioner Ann Marie Webber; social worker Jennifer Rapley; RN Rhonda Walsh, hypertension nurse; RN Janette Diebel, diabetes educator; occupational therapist Pam Rantz; health educator Nancy Payne; and pharmacist Pat McKechnie, will be on hand to answer questions.