Opposition to DGR in NW Ont

As a lifetime resident of Northwestern Ontario, I strongly object to the recent attempt by NWMO to locate a DGR for spent nuclear waste in our region.  This is an experimental endeavour entailing significat risk factors that are beig placed on residents 1600 km removed from where the waste is produced.  NW Ont has not  profited from nuclear jobs, tax base, or infrastructure as Southern Ontario residents have for over 50 years.   

It is imperative that alternatives to this untested technology be presented in detail, as this "best practice" of burying the waste, appears to simply be the "best" of a number of other suboptimal alternatives.  Any alternative means of carrying out the project component activities must be compehensive and detailed.  

Both the immediate and long term psychological impacts of this project must also be examined.  The methods of seeking consent, by ascribing  the vote for "willigness" to one small indigenous community (where over 80% of residents do NOT reside), and disregarding the "willingness" of neighboring Treaty 3 First Nations and other downstream residents, perpetuates a feeling of significant unfairness.  By providing one small community with confidential individual payments of $145,000.00 for "willingness " (again, where over 80% do not reside), creates social division among the First Nations and perpetuates a vision of  repetitive environmental racism where industries, once again, negatively impact their communities' environment with their industrial waste.  This, of course, results in a profound sense of procedural injustice, feeling targeted by decisions beyong their control. 

The psychology of unfairness regarding the nuclear industry "transporting" its waste problems elsewhere is rooted in awareness of broken trust, risk and structural power imbalances.  When the industry engages in non-transparent and dishonest methods, residents feel the process is rigged, leading to intense feelings of unfairness.  Moving the waste to another location (1600 km away, into a different watershed) is psychologically framed as exploitation.  It is seen as a "bad science paradox" where risk studies are questionalbe, and the burden is passed to communities with lower political power.  Siting waste in areas with lower socioeconomic status is viewed as a form of environmental racism, where local communities bear the risks to allow coninued industry profits, often with inadequate consultation.  The immense lifespan of nuclear waste creates a psychological burden of guilt and unfairness, as current generations are making decisions that bind future generations to hazards, which opposes the Seventh Generation Principle, an importantt philosophy that many First Nations ascribe to.

Numerous first nations in NW Ont have expressed their opposition to the DGR being placed in their territory and  view the DGR as an immoral act of dumping hazardous materials onto disempowered people, and the psychological affect of such an decision is significant.