This submission advocates a study of the metaphysics of nuclear phenomena. This approach recognises the animate nature of the particle population, and the potential we humans have to develop a remedial response to radiation.

Thank you NWMO for enabling this forum where civil society can comment on the essential task that you have taken on: namely, to ensure the safe disposal of the radioactive waste from the nuclear reactors which supply electricity for the populations of Eastern Canada.

I am moved to contribute to this forum because my experience of working in and around the nuclear industry brought me to see how atomic particles are social and sentient, more than we have so far cared or dared to consider. This then flags up the concept of the Atomic World being as a dimension of Life in itself: a sub-continent, as-it-were, in which the particle population are as the First Nations inhabitants of this dimension downstairs and inside of where and who we are.

I came to see this larger picture of the Atomic realm while working as a geologist in northern Canada, employed in a search for uranium. That search made me curious about the nature of the energy in the atoms and in this mood I studied the physics of the "four-interactive-forces" that I trust we all know are in each and every atom. These "four forces" together form what civil society refers to casually as 'nuclear energy'.

Once I was acquainted with the physics of these 'four forces', my introspective nature prompted me to unpack the metaphysics of these 'four kinds of energy'. This dualistic method of inquiry revealed (to my great surprise and wonderment !) how the "four kinds of energy" in the atoms are equally here at work within and between us humans. Yes, extraordinary that the industry has not so far recognised this symmetry. This insight gave me goosebumps, more especially when I recognised how the four forces work together in our family lives. My experience at this point is how three of these forces are forms of Love, while the fourth is a form of Light.

Friends, I know this is not an easy insight for the nuclear authorities to consider. The "physics-only" method of inquiry that discovered and investigated the Atomic realm in the first instance has acquired so much rank and authority that we Humanity are boxed in to this same single-minded heartless way of viewing the very animate world of the atomic particles.

I have created a website <https://exploring-our-potential-to-heal-the-atom.uk> where there is space to elaborate on what I outline here. Astrophysics determined about an hundred years ago how the ubiquitous "four forces" played a crucial role in the Big Bang process that formed our Universe. This insight then helped nuclear physicists recognise how these same 'four forces' are in each and every atom. It only needs about ten minutes of introspection to recognise how these 'four kinds of energy' are here in our family lives. This in turn indicates that the atoms are the family systems of the particle population and the particles are social and sentient, the same as ourselves.

The big "take-away" from this perception of the 'energetic symmetry' that pervades every species and every dimension of this universal system we are all within, is the potential we Humanity have to develop a remedial response to the phenomena of radiation. I feel able to expound on this subject because I worked at Dounreay, the nuclear reactor here in northern Scotland, and had several good deep experiences of nuclear radiation in the six months that I was working there (logging drill core (as part of a site investigation to determine if the rock strata of that area was suitable for an underground repository)). Our work showed that it wasn't.

I was an irritating nosey parker in those days and found it possible to experience radiation in the site laboratory where the spent fuel rods were brought to be examined after use. I was totally surprised and stunned by the intense sadness and feelings of despair emanating from the spent fuel rods. It was virtually unbearable. But the excitement and relief at being able to identify these emotions and know in that moment the sentient nature of the particle population lifted my spirit. I could at last understand how this outpouring of pain-full feelings was a measure of the collective distress of the particles who have witnessed and experienced their family systems being annihilated by the wild-fire process of fission. The nuclear industry misses out from valuing and learning from this extraordinary display of emotion while it maintains its' disdain for subjective information (the stuff that metaphysics sees and wonders about).

In this mood, I would encourage NWMO to spread your bets and look into the Atomic World with anthropological acumen at the behaviour and ambitions of the atomic particles who seem to be in a constant process of bettering themselves. I wonder on the side if this is a consequence of the 'four forces' being in their (and equally our) lives. I would recommend studying the Periodic Table of the Elements of Matter with an anthropological interest. Because this symbolic map suggests that the particles are all caught up in a vast enduring migration that brings them from the refugee-like settlements we know as Uranium, at the margins of the Atomic World: to evolve and become in time the centred and strong individuals who form elemental Hydrogen, the dominant element of our Universe.

The observation and realisation of the "energetic symmetry" that prevails throughout our Universe looks to be as the guiding principle for how we humans, we Humanity, could develop a remedial process with the potential of alleviating the distress of the fissioned particles. In other words, a process that seeks to ameliorate the phenomena we know as 'radiation'.

I outline in my website how an experiential view of the light coming from the Moon and the light coming from the Sun recognises how these essentially feminine and masculine forms of light combine in a year to form a photon. A "photon of whole Light" which in effect lights the whole Earth in the course of a year. To my mind, this 'heavenly photon' looks to be entirely responsible for the vibrant healthiness and fecundity of this planet. Remembering the remarkable symmetry that infuses and informs our Universe, the thought arises that we humans might develop the group skills to create "photons of our Love and our Light", and learn to convey these "units of universal energy" to land amongst the fissioned particles, that we can determine if this is beneficial for them.

The process is thoroughly well-know and well-tested and in use day and night by parents raising their children. I am advocating that we learn to amplifying this same process, learn to do it with collective skill that we might then be able to generate a field of our "four forces energy" with the power and reach to be felt by the fissioned particles at the atomic level of this deeply sensible and symmetrical family-rich Universe.

I am outlining an approach that has largely formed in my imagination, yet I have acquired good working experience in this Community where I live, of women and men singing together. A process that looks and feels like the engine room for an healing approach able to influence energetic processes at the atomic level.

Thank you NWMO for establishing this Commentary section which I sense provides an outlet for the enormous misgivings that your concept of burying the radioactive particles brings to the surface. I hope you will look along this path that I believe can address the rad.waste issues. I think it will be an adventure of a life time and may well require several generations to run their course. A process that will equip us social animals with group skills that measure and treasure our universal nature. Small steps are sufficient to begin with. I like the feeling that we are looking and moving in a good direction.

Meanwhile, may all things go well for you. Ian Turnbull. Findhorn, Scotland.