HAVE YOUR SAY BY MAY 31 ON CANADA'S RADIOACTIVE WASTE POLICY 
Review Details                             Key Principles and Policy Points                          Discussion papers and backgrounders             Speak up! Use the Action Page

KEY POINTS AND PRINCIPLES

Principles of Radioactive Waste Management
  • Transparency, openness and traceability
  • Precautionary principle
  • Community Right to Know
  • Protection of human health and the environment
  • Oversight and accountability
  • Peace, Order and Good Government
UNITED NATIONS
​DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
ARTICLE 29
​2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent. 
KEY POLICY POINT FOR CANADA'S RADIOACTIVE WASTE REVIEW
  • Canada needs an independent agency, arms-length from government and industry, to oversee radioactive waste management and decommissioning
  • Radioactive waste should NOT be abandoned; policy should direct perpetual care and monitoring
  • Government and industry must be open and transparent in the management of radioactive waste and its transportation; Indigenous peoples and other Canadians have a right to access information, to engage in decision-making, and to know the risks
  • No importing of radioactive waste from other countries 
  • No plutonium extraction (reprocessing or pyro-processing) of radioactive fuel waste
ADDITIONAL POLICY POINTS LISTED BY NRCAN DISCUSSION PAPER TOPICS
WASTE MINIMIZATION
  • Prohibition on reprocessing irradiated fuel should continue
  • The extraction of plutonium must be explicitly prohibited
  • Practice of “free release” of radioactive materials should be discontinued
  • Detailed tracking of all radioactive materials, including (very) low level radioactive wastes
  • Waste characterizations and inventories must be detailed, current, and peer / public reviewed and accessible 
WASTE DISPOSAL
  • The notion of “disposal” should be replaced by an approach of long-term care and stewardship
  • Independence and transparency should be integrated throughout the radioactive waste policy
  • Agencies responsible for radioactive waste research and oversight should be independent of the nuclear industry
  • Canada’s nuclear regulator should  report directly to parliament
  • Indigenous peoples and the public should be engaged in policy and project development and review, with funded access to legal and technical advisors and all relevant documentation 
WASTE STORAGE
  • Design, operations and monitoring for fuel waste storage systems should be open and transparent, and include public access to information 
  • Storage systems should be designed to minimize risk and maximize protection of human health and the environment
  • Waste  storage systems should be passively safe,  should be “hardened” against extreme weather and malevolent acts, and should be dispersed across the site,  at the point of generation
DECOMMISSIONING 
  • Decommissioning approaches must at minimum conform to international safety standards.
  • Decommissioning planning and implementation should be information based, including full information about the condition of the site (such as contamination of soil, ground or surface water)  and a full inventory  of radioactive wastes (on site and decommissioning wastes
  • Information must be publicly available and peer reviewed, including by the public and Indigenous peoples
  • All decommissioning projects must include a comprehensive strategy for the transmission of information and  knowledge to future generations
  • End state objectives should be based on ecological and human health  and the decommissioning work must show that the site has been fully remediated and is now fully safe
Briefer on Waste Minimization HERE
NRCan Discussion Paper HERE
NRCan Forum for comments HERE
March 3rd Webinar Slides HERE
Briefer on Waste Storage HERE
NRCan Discussion Paper HERE
NRCan Forum for comments HERE
Presentation Slides HERE
Briefer on Waste Disposal HERE
NRCan Discussion Paper HERE
NRCan Forum for comments HERE
Presentation Slides HERE
Briefer on Decommissioning HERE
NRCan Discussion Paper HERE
NRCan Forum for comments HERE
Presentation slides HERE
Radioactive Waste Characterization & Classification and Radioactive Waste Transport - Preparatory Webinar  15 March
Briefing Paper on Waste Characterization and Classification HERE  March 15 preparatory webinar presentation slides HERE