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Casework: High-Level Risk in Revell Lake Area

Summary

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is proposing to permanently place high-level radioactive waste underground in a deep geological repository (DGR) in the Revell Lake area near Ignace, Ontario, within the territory of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.

DGR’s are underground facilities used to store high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. If approved, this would be the first ever DGR in Canada and is designed as a multi-generational project with construction and placement of nuclear fuel waste for 160 years, and intended to be kept apart from any living things for hundreds of thousands of years.  

Arguments and Outcomes

CELA represents We the Nuclear Free North (“WTNFN”), a Northern Ontario alliance of environmental organizations, non-governmental organizations,  community groups and individual Indigenous people, primarily from Treaty 3 territory. Among other things, WTNFN is concerned about the safety of transporting high-level nuclear waste across thousands of kilometres, and the environmental, health and safety risks of the proposed DGR facility and related activities such as a proposed used fuel packaging plant on site.

Next Steps

The NWMO recently submitted the Initial Project Description (IPD) for the DGR, which marks the beginning of the federal Impact Assessment process. On behalf of our client We the Nuclear Free North, CELA reviewed the IPD and provided submissions to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada on the inadequacy of the IPD.

CELA’s client also provided comments on the Summary of Issues, expressing concern that critical factors within the impact assessment framework were relegated to an annex as opposed to forming part of the Summary of Issues, without legal justification, and that key issues raised in earlier submissions were improperly excluded from the Summary of Issues. 

The Deep Geological Repository is undergoing a review panel assessment under the Impact Assessment Act. The federal government has since proposed listing the DGR as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act. That designation would effectively pre-approve the project before the impact assessment has evaluated its risks. On behalf of We the Nuclear Free North, CELA filed comments opposing the proposed designation. We urged the government to let the impact assessment run its full course and to preserve Cabinet’s ability to refuse approval.

Resources

Members of the public can go to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada Registry for this project to stay up to date, sign up for more information, and see the latest documents filed.

Resources