BRUCE COUNTY, ONT. -- Not everyone is in favour of burying nuclear waste in Bruce County.

A petition opposing plans to potentially bury Canada’s high-level nuclear waste in rural Bruce County has been presented to Huron-Kinloss council, with 1,100 signing the petition expressing their opposition to the plan.

The Township of Huron-Kinloss is one of three communities still in the running to permanently house Canada’s most radioactive nuclear waste.

There are nearly three million fuel bundles currently in storage, with as many as 5.2-million bundles expected by the time the proposed facility would be built.

Residents say they were surprised so many people signed their petition, in the largely pro-nuclear area, home to the world’s largest nuclear fleet at Bruce Power.

They expected to only get a few hundreds signatures opposing the plan, when they started the petition, but ended up with over 1,000.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization says a final site will be selected by 2023. The final communities are the Township of Huron-Kinloss, the Municipality of South Bruce, and the Town of Ignace, in Northern Ontario.

A plan to bury Ontario’s low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste under the Bruce Power site, in Bruce County, will be voted on the Saugeen Ojibway Nation later this month.