With respect, our "physics-only" view of the nuclear subject prevents us from recognising the whole living nature of the Atomic Realm.

Thank you NWMO for providing this opportunity to comment on your plans for managing Canada's radioactive waste. I have skim-read your reports and commend you for the fullness and thoroughness of your research and planning for this long long-term project. I especially want to appreciate the profound and courteous "Acknowledgment of Truths" that preface your Initial Project Description. The respectful and positive tone of these commitments to the task ahead of you and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation is entirely heartening.

These introductory comments are sincerely made even while I find myself exploring a very different view of the Atomic World than you maintain. My comments from here on go to illuminate a perception that might well be on your radar, as it certainly is on mine.

Firstly to say I feel pretty knowledgeable about the nuclear subject because I worked as a geologist in Canada in the '70's, involved for a while in a search for uranium. That search made me curious about the nature of the energy in the atom and so I acquainted myself with the physics of the 'four forces' that are in each and every atom and together form what we know casually as 'nuclear energy.' For the record, these forces are known everywhere as:  Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong and the Weak nuclear force.

So far, so good. However, I recognised early on how physicists identified these forces on the basis of their objective properties and being an introspective character, I found myself wondering about their subjective qualities: in other words, about the metaphysics of these 'four forces'. The outcome of this 'dualistic approach' is that I came to see how these forces are entirely familiar, and are here at work within and between us humans. They are especially evident in our family lives. The nomenclature that describes their social and spiritual and domestic qualities and quantities, reads like this:  1 cup Masculine strength, I cup Feminine power, I cup of the family's binding energy, 1/4 teaspoon sexual energy.

I am in effect naming how we humans, we Humanity, experience these 'four forces' in ourselves. The outcome of this comparative analysis is that we get to realise that the four kinds of energy in the atoms are equally here at work within ourselves. Indeed, I am moved to think that the 'four forces' work together to form family systems. This then indicates that atoms are the family systems of the particle population. And the particles are social and sentient, the same as ourselves.

With this understanding quietly cooking inside me, I sought work at Dounreay, the nuclear reactor here in northern Scotland. I was on site for six months, logging drill core as part of an investigation to determine if the local geology and hydrology was suitable for an underground repository. Our work showed that it wasn't. However, during this period two insights came alive in me that I will outline here, for they deserve far more consideration than I can give to them on my own.

The one is a consequence of my being born and growing up in Kenya, where my father was part of the British Colonial Service that administered Kenya at those years. Growing up in the shadow of this well-established colonial institution gave me the experience to recognise at Dounreay how we British are now working in the Atomic World as colonists. History is repeating itself. We are repeating ourselves. It is a painful idea to promulgate, but once seen, it is impossible to ignore.

The second insight is a consequence of being able to visit the site laboratory where spent fuel rods were routinely brought to be examined for any flaws in their design or construction. Being in the proximity of the fuel rods, I experienced the intense sadness and feelings of despair that were in the energy emanating from the fissioned uranium. It made sense to me later on to recognise that I was feeling the collective anguish of the vast number of atomic particles who had experienced their family systems being decimated by the fission process. The discharge of pain-full emotions by the fissioned particles highlights their sentient nature and provides valuable information as to their health and stability. I imagine NWMO has well-developed procedures for measuring and interpreting this kind of data.

Anyway, out of this whole experience, and the realisation of the same energy being in us humans as is amongst the particles, I recognised the potential we humans, we Humanity, have to develop a remedial response to the phenomena of radiation: in other words, to the long-lived distress and dis-ease of the fissioned particles.

I am moved to propose this process because my best experience of the 'four forces' is how three of them are forms of Love, while the fourth is a form of Light. So here my mind's eye sees the potential for groups of women and men to work together, and learn to create quantum units of the 'four forces' that live within us all. And as part of this process, learn how we might convey units of our 'universal energy' to land amongst the fissioned particles: that we can determine if this is beneficial for them.

Like many others, I remember my dismay and sympathy for the bruised and broken First Nation families whose children were sent, or taken away, to attend the Residential Schools. I recall the Government and the Churches involved in that process recognising the harm it caused. They paid recompense and promised it would never happen again. Yet I see how our nuclear reactors continue this same covert process of breaking up family systems, but now at the Atomic level. The three forms of Love in each atom are discarded because they have no calorific value. The reactors meanwhile are designed to recover the heat of the quotient of Light that is in each and every atom. I wonder if the emotion of "discarded Love", like wine turning into vinegar, becomes the energetic effect we know as radioactivity.

It feels to me that we have used up that first naive idea of the atoms being a source of 'free energy'. Our ability to recognise the presence of the 'four forces' in our planetary, people and particle systems, indicates our Universe is as a system of family systems. In this context, the atomic particles look to be as the children of this multi-tiered, multi-generational system that we are all within. I find this analogy adds purpose and power to the idea that we Humanity might learn to develop an healing technology to address the distress of the fissioned particles. I like how this approach might in turn help us humans recognise and value our universal nature.

Thank you again for creating this space to comment on the best way to manage the radioactive waste from the Canadian reactors. You will surely hear that I think we have broken through into another dimension of Life, with our nuclear work. Nonetheless, may all things go well for you and your approach to the challenging task of managing the waste materials. With respect and good wishes for the NWMO Directors and Staff.

Ian Turnbull. <Personal information removed>

2 February 2026