Note: this list is not exhaustive, read other comments for more ideas; in making your comments reserve the right to make additional comments, noting that the 30-Day comment period was insufficient for a full review.
There was not enough information provided on the following topics:
Long-Term safety.
Transportation
Emergency response and evacuation plans
Accidents
Malevolent acts / Security
Health (discussed under “socio-economic”)
Worker and Occupational Health (not addressed)
Project Steps
- Transportation
- Use fuel packaging plant (lacks a complete or even summary description)
- Concurrent placement of wastes in underground chambers while construction is ongoing
- Monitoring through operational, closure and post closure stages
Climate considerations and estimates of climate impacts
Potential effects section is inadequate
Radioactivity and estimates of radioactive releases from various project activities over various time frames and assessing those effects (largely just ignored)
Community profiles: differential treatment, transportation and downstream communities largely excluded
Sequencing of the approvals/licenses
Water “management” omits key issues, including:
- pumping of groundwater from the underground (volumes, contamination, storage, treatment, release)
- Water from the used fuel packaging plant (volumes, contamination, storage, treatment, release)
Alternatives to the project (e.g. continued on-site storage) are not describeed
Alternative means (of carrying out the project) description is inadequate or missing; examples include:
- Ramps versus shafts
- Transportation in used fuel containers instead of in transportation containers
- Mining methods, for example to minimize Excavation Damage Zones (versus standard mining techniques)
- Repository layout
- Waste emplacement (in room vs infloor)
- Used fuel container design
The project description states that access (to the site) will be limited; no details are provided, including:
- Will Tower Road and Dyment Road (currently used extensively by the public) be gated or decommissioned?
- Will the canoe route through the area be blocked or restricted?
- Will hunting and fishing and foraging in the area be disallowed? If so, for what area?
We the Nuclear Free North 