Not a socially responsible project

My partner and have travelled Northern routes many, many times East to West and back again, pitching tent along the way. This DGR project is very disturbing to me. The NWMO is pushing throughout the idea that it has a handle on the safety issues. But the assumption that the science and technology of today is sufficient to eliminate risk of radioactive contamination in the present let alone during 50 years of waste fuel transportation or till closure 160 years along seems reckless. It is unconvincing.

We cannot say nuclear power is reliable (Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, for example) and it certainly is not clean. Not with the accumulated high-level radioactive waste we do not know what to do with other than dump in the homelands of Treaty 3 people (out of sight, out of mind). Containment proposed at the chosen site for contaminants from above ground activities (like the repackaging plant) and from deep long-term storage does not eliminate exposure to radioactive releases. And any future need/desire to retrieve the buried waste because of leaching, say, or of a new-found possibility of neutralizing the radioactivity could very well not be met. The only responsible alternative is to eliminate nuclear power use altogether until such time as research has figured a way to neutralize the dangerous radioactivity of its waste.

The already accumulated 150 tonnes of spent fuel need to be properly contained and monitored where generated until there are better alternatives. Otherwise, transportation of the used fuel will need to happen along routes frequently closed by accidents (animal encounters, icy conditions, driver error...) whether by road or train (Lac-Megantic). Not only are the life of waterways, airways and the land all at risk of nuclear spills both in the immediate vicinity and in the watersheds but human life as well. What is the justification? This project does not sound socially responsible at all. it requires  a full impact assessment and public hearing and this can only happen when transportation is includeded as the fundamental part of the risk it actually is.