NWMO nuclear waste burial proposal

My name is Kelly Allan and I am a resident of North Bay, Ontario. I am writing to express my concern over the proposed burial of high-level nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario at the Revell site and most importantly to express grave concern over the plan to transport the waste long distance through my community and all communities along the route.

As any resident in northern Ontario can tell you, road safety is an issue that we deal with perennially and consider when we travel. Both Highway 17 and Highway 11 are for the most of the proposed 1600km route, two lanes. There are frequent accidents, road closures due to inclement weather, and road closures due to maintenance. There are many things we have a reputation for here up north, such as the beauty of the lakes and trees, but we are also burdened with the reputation of bad roads.

The Ministry of Transportation’s Preliminary 2024 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report Selected Statistics show that large truck collisions count for 13.6% of collisions. In 2024 there were 80 fatalities dues to large truck collisions which totaled 1,341 in total. https://www.ontario.ca/files/2026-02/mto-orsar-preliminary-selected-statistics-2023-en-2026-02-05.pdf

In the most recent data available, Ministry of Transportation’s Ontario Road Safety Annual Report shows there were 520 accidents involving large trucks between the years 2018 to 2022. https://www.ontario.ca/files/2026-02/mto-orsar-annual-report-en-2022-2026-02-05.pdf

Looking at this data, knowing our roads, the inevitability of a truck carrying nuclear waste getting into an accident is clear. With the proposed 1 to 3 trucks per day for 50 years traveling across the province, statistically speaking, inevitably there will be accidents involving these trucks. Yet, details of transportation safety plan are missing from the draft guidelines.

This is a disaster waiting to happen with no disaster plan, literally. The guideline is not a true assessment of the impacts of the proposal, but simply an offering of an approval of a concept with many details missing, and not only details of transportation safety and all that entails; transportation containers, emergency response, First Responders training, public awareness, but also the socioeconomic and environmental impact are lacking significant research.

The guidelines are not sufficient in research or detail. A project of this scope which has so much potential to cause damage needs rigorous research and development and the guidelines are not sufficient in this regard.