NWMO Impact Assessment Comments

I am part of a large family that spends half the year living 30km from the proposed DGR Site in NWO. We have lived in the area for 70 years on a beautiful lake in what we think is one of the most beautiful , easily accessible, wilderness areas left in Canada. 'Sunset Country' is a tourist region, shared with the Indigenous, dotted throughout with many Lodges, Resorts, and cottages promising pristine lakes,land, and an abundance of fish, flora, and wildlife. This area in the beautiful Canadian Shield should be protected, not exploited and destroyed.

The NWMO moved into Ignace about 15 years ago and sold the DGR plan to the struggling town with millions of $$ and promises of even more $$ enticements to follow. This was disgusting. Then they continued and have given millions to several other communities including WLON, in hopes of buying favor of the DGR project. This should be illegal. Those two places were the only two communities that got to vote on whether they supported the DGR. What about all the other people, and Indigenous communities, that are living downstream, or near the DGR site, that could be affected? Or all the people, communities, and Indigenous regions all along the transportation routes?

There would not be a DGR without transportation of the fuel bundles. The transportation must be included in this assessment of how they could safely bring the huge amount of fuel bundles thousands of km.  to the DGR site over a period of 50-60 years. This is a ridiculous concept and beyond the common sense thinking of most people. This has never been done before at this scale, duration of time, or with high level nuclear waste. It should be stored as close as possible to where it is produced, in permanent hardened storage bunkers. That way it can continue to be monitored and secured forever. If it goes into the DGR the NWMO are proposing, it cannot be monitored, repaired, etc, forever, as they will have no way of getting to it. And how is it that they can seal it up and decomission and abandon the site in 100 years? The waste is deadly for tens of thousands of years!

We also question the location of the DGR placement as it is at the headwaters of the two main river systems in Northwestern Ontario. Contamination through the very extensive water systems could end up going all the way to Hudson's Bay! the dangers it could bring are far reaching and forever.

Living near the proposed DGR site, we are especially concerned about the plans the NWMO have regarding the actual site. The storage at arrival of the fuel and for how long above ground, the transfer of the high level fuel bundles, the repackaging process, and the internment into the actual DGR. There is not enough information given by the NWMO. Nor have the NWMO talked about the groundwater that will come out of the DGR and be pumped into 'settling ponds'?? will it be contaminated? what happens to it? Also, what about the air that will be pumped out of the DGR- will it be contaminated? How will all this be kept from contaminating the environment, the air, the streams and ground , and therefore animals and humans? 

This is one of the largest environmental decisions that we will ever make in Canada. All Canadians need to know the issues and dangers of what we're up against with the continued use of Nuclear Energy. That is, what to do with the most toxic, dangerous substance on Earth..... the waste that is left behind. 

A full impact assessment and public hearing by an integrated panel must be done on all of this project.   

This is a high stakes project with long term consequences. The NWMO never talk about the dangers - they constantly dismiss and downplay any concerns people have over the project.