Dr. Gordon Edwards, President of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR, photo at left), has provided the following backgrounder on the proposed DGR1, including links to his written submission to the JRP, and the transcript of his oral testimony before the JRP:
CCNR has taken the position that it is both unscientific and unethical to abandon indestructible nuclear wastes that will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. "Disposal" is a scientifically meaningless word, as humanity has never successfully disposed of anything.
The problem of isolating radioactive waste perpetually is so far an unsolved problem. Until a solution emerges, abandonment of the wastes is criminal negligence.
Instead, CCNR advocates a policy of "Rolling Stewardship" whereby the legacy of nuclear wastes is passed on from one generation to the next in the full knowledge of the nature of the wastes and the need to isolate them from the environment.
Constant monitoring, guaranteed retrievability, and a plan for repackaging the wastes at regular intervals (ranging from a few decades to three hundred years) is a more responsible way to manage these wastes. When problems arise, corrective actions can be taken.
CCNR will be submitting a supplementary brief on Rolling Stewardship before the end of the hearings.
Gordon Edwards.