I am a physician and familiar with the effects of radiation on the tissues of humans and other organisms. Even in low doses radiation can be toxic to living things. It is with regard to these effects on the individual, and public health as a whole, that I submit these remarks.

Over the past eighty years that we have have been creating radioactive waste from the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, humans have not discovered a safe and secure long-term method of storing this waste for the potential tens of millions of years that some of it will remain dangerous. The current proposal for deep storage underground (a technique that is still not functional in any setting) may be our best chance so far for this storage. However, to be confident in the success of DGR's, one must overlook the chance of deterioration of the storage containers over time, the possible leakage of moisture and salinity into the storage areas, the effects of accumulated heat, and the potential for significant changes in the earth's crust over the millenia.

More concerning at the current time, however, is the question of how 150,000 tonnes of material, some of it highly radioactive, can be transported from multiple sites in Canada from New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario to Ignace. The current understanding of multiple trucks (3-5) per day, for decades (40-50 years), travelling on public roads and highways is alarming. These trucks must pass through residential areas, agricultural areas, sensitive ecosystems, and First Nations lands. They will be loaded with highly toxic radioactive waste, subject to all the hazards of highway travel, plus the possibilities of toxic leakage, major accidents, or even terrorist attack.

It is clear that transportation of radioactive waste is a potential threat to human health through direct exposure to radiation, and/or exposure to irradiated environments. The absence of a detailed and professional comprehensive assessment of the public health impacts of transport of this material is an absolutely mandatory requirement for your assessment to be acceptable to the Canadian public and those that are committed to their health.