{"id":83421,"date":"2026-05-23T07:58:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=83421"},"modified":"2026-05-23T07:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:33:17","slug":"push-back-on-reduced-assessment-of-nuclear-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/push-back-on-reduced-assessment-of-nuclear-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Push Back on Reduced Assessment of Nuclear Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Academics, environmental lawyers and civil society organizations are raising the alarm over a federal proposal to reduce independent scrutiny of nuclear and uranium projects.<\/p>\n

A May 8th Discussion Paper proposes major rollbacks in project reviews under the Impact Assessment Act. The proposal would hit nuclear projects particularly hard, handing the assessment process over to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions about nuclear projects require very careful evaluation and meaningful public participation. The reviews must be based on sound information that is tested by independent experts,\u201d commented Dr. Ole Hendrickson, researcher with Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has a track record of being led by industry insiders. It never turns down license applications and reports to a Minister who promotes nuclear power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Discussion Paper proposes that \u201cthe CNSC would be responsible for conducting the impact assessment\u201d and \u201cdetermine whether the project would cause significant negative federal effects\u201d. Even projects already undergoing review by the Impact Assessment Agency would be handed over to the CNSC.<\/p>\n

Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator with the northern Ontario environmental coalition Northwatch, describes this as both disruptive and discouraging for public participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssessments are underway of new reactor builds at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, in Peace River in Alberta and at Wesleyville, Ontario, plus the Nuclear Waste Management Organization\u2019s plan to transport, process, bury and abandon all of Canada\u2019s high-level nuclear waste at the Revell site in the heart of Treaty 3 territory in northwestern Ontario,\u201d Lloyd explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are massive projects requiring huge financial outlay and imposing risk over very, very long time periods. Members of the public have already invested tens of thousands of hours reviewing them. To be told now that the whole process could be handed over to the CNSC is unthinkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public trust of the CNSC has been an issue over many years. Academic studies observe that the\u00a0CNSC has features of a \u201ccaptured regulator\u201d. It sometimes even self-identifies as being part of the nuclear industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission often seeks to exclude the public from decision-making. It was in the utmost secrecy that it authorised, last year, the transport of spent radioactive fuel from the Gentilly-1 power station along Quebec\u2019s roads to Ontario,\u201d explains Gilles Provost, spokesperson for Ralliement contre la pollution radioactive.<\/p>\n

Organizations have collaborated to create a web page, backgrounders and an action alert at Assessing-Nuclear-Risk.ca. They urge the public to make comments by June 7th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Academics, environmental lawyers and civil society organizations are raising the alarm over a federal proposal to reduce independent scrutiny of nuclear and uranium projects. A May 8th Discussion Paper proposes major rollbacks in project reviews under the Impact Assessment Act. The proposal would hit nuclear projects particularly hard, handing the assessment process over to the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-northern-ontario"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 08:17:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83423,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83421\/revisions\/83423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}