Wawa-news.com Local and Regional News
A twelve-town tour of workshops to support public participation in the current federal review of the nuclear industry’s massive project to transport and bury all of Canada’s high-level nuclear fuel waste in northwestern Ontario will launch this Sunday with the first stop in Sault Ste. Marie.
The public has just 30 days to comment on a set of draft guidelines that will outline what information must be included in the Impact Statement the Nuclear Waste Management Organization must prepare as the information base for a multi-year federal review process. The comment period ends May 10th.
The workshops are a combined effort of Northwatch and We the Nuclear Free North. The workshop tour will begin with dates in Sault Ste. Marie on April 19th, Wawa on April 20th at 7 p.m. at the MMCC, and in Terrace Bay and Nipigon on April 21st.
Key concerns in northeastern Ontario are with the long-distance transportation of the high-level waste through the region, an issue which the NWMO had attempted to have excluded from the impact assessment. The draft guidelines do include transportation but do not appear to require an examination of key safety issues, such transportation container design and testing.
“This is a northern Ontario wide project, with concerns across the entire region. Many communities in the northeast were investigated as a potential burial site prior to 2020. Many more will be impacted by the transportation of the radioactive waste through their community if the NWMO was ever allowed to pro
ceed with the site in northwestern Ontario”, explained Brennain Lloyd, Project Coordinator with Northwatch.
On April 10th the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada posted the “Draft Tailored Impact Statement Guidelines” on the public registry for the project, which launches the 30-day public review. The purpose of the Guidelines is to set out what information the Nuclear Waste Management Organization must provide in their Impact Statement and supporting documents, which will form the basis of the impact assessment process and public hearing.
The public has just thirty days to comment on the 88-page draft guidelines document. There is also an 8-page summary posted.
Workshops later in the month will be held in Dyment, Kenora, Dryden, Ignace, Thunder Bay, Kapuskasing, New Liskeard, North Bay and Sudbury.
We the Nuclear Free North is carrying out a first analysis of the guidelines with its members and legal team, and is posting information to support the public in preparing their comments on the alliance’s web site at www.wethenuclearfreenorth.ca.
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