Concerns regarding storage of spent nuclear fuel waste

I am writing as a concerned citizen from Winnipeg about the plan to excavate a deep hole in the Canadian Shield to "dispose" (read store) the nuclear waste from Canada's current nuclear reactors. What I understand is that highly radioactive waste will be sealed in this repository with the hopes that there will be no leaks for the thousands (hundreds of thousand?) of years the waste remains toxically radioactive and a danger to the health of humans and the planet. 

What if the project doesn't remain sealed? While the town of Ignace has signed a hosting agreement for the project, it is in a different watershed than where actual site is. The site in Revell Township, just east of Dryden, sits at the headwaters of the Wabigood and Rainy/Turtle river watersheds which drain into Lake Winnipeg and on into the Hudson Bay. Any contamination of these waters from toxic radioactive waste would be deadly for life throughout that watershed. "Why should we worry - nothing like that is bound to happen in my lifetime?" some may ask. My view is that we don't live for ourselves but for those that come after us and should receive an environment that sustains life in perhaps even more bountiful ways than it does for us.

I continue to read that waste transportation is not even considered part of the project! Have you driven on the highway across Northwest Ontario? It is beautiful - and can be deadly. It is one of most dangerous hightway routes in Canada, yet the plan is that for 40 years, truckloads of dangerous nuclear waste will travel the highway from sites as far east as New Brunswick! Not only that, when it arrives at the site in Revell Township, the waste needs to be prepared for burial which again creates opportunities for accidents and release of radioactive toxins into the air and water.

While the Town of Ignace (again, east of the project site and on a different watershed) has signed a willing host agreement (at substantial financial compensation for an area that is economically challenged), and Wabigood Lake Ojibway Nation has also signed a hosting agreement, 13 other First Nations in Treaty 3 have declared their opposition. If Canada takes seriously informed consent with regards to treaty relationships, the concerns of these 13 Nations must be taken into account.

I am concerned that the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) suggests that this project will "eliminate the need for future generations to actively manage used nuclear fuel." What happens if the burial site is compromised in any way? Will not future generations need to activly monitor and manage this nuclear waste? Also, in the same document the NWMO advocates for the continued role of nuclear energy into the future. Does that not mean that toxic, radioactive waste will continue to be created and needing to be managed for many more thousands of years (and many generations to manage it)?

I am concerned about the effects of climate change - and the immediate crisis that my children and grandchild will face in the not too distant future. At the same time, I would suggest that there are many more cleaner and cost-effective ways to fill the energy needs for our collective safe futures. Nuclear development is NOT an answer to climate change. In fact the timeline for the development of nuclear facilities goes exceeds the short time period we have to replace fossil fuels to mitigate the climate crisis (not to mention the pollution created at all stages of the nuclear cycle).

I haven't touched on the risky links of nuclear development and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. "Not in a nice country like Canada!" may be a rejoinder to that concern, however, given the political developments just to the south of Canada, should we not be concerned that our nuclear development could be hijacked?

Obviously there is a problem with what to do with current spent toxic radioactive waste now in Canada. Do we want to continue that trend for generations to come? Please consider carefully the extreme danger of the plan to dispose of (store) nuclear waste thousands of kilometers away from where it has been created in Northwest Ontario!