Need for a federal impact assessment of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s high level radioactive waste project in Northwestern Ontario

I support the call for a federal impact assessment of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s high level radioactive waste project in Northwestern Ontario. 

The nuclear industry’s proposal to dispose of Canada’s most long-lived radioactive waste in Northwestern Ontario is deeply flawed because it ignores Indigenous rights and risks to communities located downstream from the proposed deep geological site. 

It also ignores the risks associated with transportation of the high-level radioactive wastes. It must not be allowed to remove accident risks, routing decisions, and emergency preparedness from public review and planning – denying hundreds of communities along potential transportation corridors any meaningful opportunity to understand or weigh in on the risks they may face. Nuclear waste transportation routes and risks must be included within the project scope.

Indigenous rights, including free, prior and informed consent obligations, internationally recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and required under Canadian law, must also be included in the assessment. 

Environmental justice must be upheld, including the rights of impacted communities along the proposed route, They must have a say.