Deep Geologic Repository Project Project Manager Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency 160 Elgin Street, llnd Floor, Ottawa ON KlA OH3

Dear Sirs

Seemingly lost among the thousands of pages of the most comprehensive Environmental Assessment in Canadian history, is the Municipality of Kincardine in the County of Bruce and its people. Sixteen years ago, the operation of the Bruce Nuclear Power Development {BNPD), the largest nuclear power plant in Canada, located within the Municipality of Kincardine, was turned over to private enterprise, in the form of a lease to Bruce Power. Almost simultaneously the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was formed which was given the responsibility by the federal government for all of Canada's nuclear fuel waste, approximately forty percent of which is being stored within the Municipality of Kincardine at the BNPD. This opened up the question locally, ,,what about the tens of thousands of cubic meters of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes currently being stored temporarily at the Bruce site"'? When the Council of the Municipality of Kincardine asked this question of the Governments of Canada, via NR Can and Ontario through its Crown Corporation, Ontario Power Generation (OPG} owner of the BNPD, the answer was that, low and intermediate level radioactive wastes are the responsibility of the generators. In Canada the generators are all Crown Corporations owned by the provinces in which they operate.

A thorough investigation of the implications of this ruling led the Council of the Municipality of Kincardine to conclude that the chance of OPG being able to remove these wastes to any other region of Ontario was highly unlikely and that if there was going to be a solution, Kincardine would need to drive it. In 2002 a memorandum of understanding was signed in front of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) between OPG and the Municipality of Kincardine outlining the activities that would take place before any decision could be made on whether a technology or plan could be developed that would win the support of those involved. Safety, open communication and research being the key themes.

This lead to Council and OPG sending delegations to communities hosting nuclear waste repositories in Switzerland, France, Sweden, and the U.S.A. To gain insight, these delegations met with community leaders and repository operators as well as some of the regulators in the regions visited. At the conclusion of each site visit, the Mayor of Kincardine in the European countries and the Deputy Mayor in the U.S.A. asked this question, "Knowing what you now know, having experienced becoming a host community to a repository for low and intermediate level nuclear waste, would you recommend we abandon consideration of hosting such a facility or continue with our research•? Every community leader asked in Europe and the U.SA responded that their facility had been very beneficial for their community and we should continue our efforts. In 2004, after a further two years of community outreach, the positive conclusion of preliminary environmental assessments, socio-economic investigation, repository design and feasibility studies, Council concluded that the Deep Geological Repository (DGR) concept had the highest safety margin and therefore was the optimum solution for the people of Kincardine. A negotiated agreement was signed between OPG and the Municipality of Kincardine. Ratification of the contract required every person of Iega I voting age to be polled as to whether they were in favour of constructing the proposed DGR or opposed. With seventy four percent of qualified responses in favour, the agreement was ratified.

In the thirteen years since the people of the Municipality of Kincardine authorized their Council to proceed to work with OPG towards creating a Deep Geologic Repository for Low and Intermediate

Level nuclear w~ste at the BNPD, the project has been subjected to the most intense scientific, regulatory, financial and social scrutiny that a project can be put through in the form of the Joint Review Panel (JRP) process. The JRP had access to the knowledge and expertise of Canadian and international engineers, geologists and scientists as did CNSC, and OPG, all reached the conclusion that "No significant negative environmental effects from the project" are expected.

Our early studies led us to Port Hope Ontario, where they had been working with a Federal Crown Corporation to find a solution to their historic low Level Waste issue for over 25 years. After polling every municipality in Ontario they failed to find even one willing accept their wastes. That, along with discussions held on our international visits, led us to the understanding that finding another Ontario municipality who would willingly accept these responsibilities is highly unlikely.

LLW and ILW has been accumulating in "Interim Storage" for over 40 years at the Bruce site. Ontario's Nuclear Reactors will continue to be relied upon to provide clean power for many more decades to come.ln my opinion it is unreasonable to expect the people of the Municipality of Kincardine to continue to accept all of Ontario's low and Intermediate level radioactive wastes if a permanent repository is not to be built. 'Interim Storage Forever' is not a solution.

Having led the Municipalities work on this project as the Mayor of Kincardine for 11 of the past 15 years, I strongly support the conclusions of the Joint Review Panel, and its recommendations. I urge our federal government to approve the applications submitted by OPG. like the joint Review Panel , I believe the repository must be built sooner than later.

Mayor

Municipality of Kincardine