Joint Review Panel Announces Additional Public Hearing Days for Deep Geologic Repository Project

OTTAWA, June 3, 2014 /CNW/ - The Joint Review Panel for the Deep Geologic Repository Project for Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste (DGR) has scheduled additional public hearing days to begin on September 9, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. The hearing will continue over approximately two weeks and will be held at: 

The Royal Canadian Legion
219 Lambton Street, Kincardine, Ontario

The public hearing will give participants, Ontario Power Generation and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission the opportunity to provide their views in relation to the subjects of the information requests issued by the Panel since November 2013. Any person may attend the public hearing as an observer.

How to Participate
Amended Hearing Procedures that describe how to participate are being issued by the Panel today. Participants may make a written-only hearing submission or an oral presentation to the Panel at the hearing. Oral presentations must be supported by a written submission.

Government departments, Aboriginal groups, members of the public and organizations that participated in the DGR public hearing in 2013 and wish to make an oral presentation on one or more of the hearing subjects are required to indicate their intention by providing a completed Hearing Participation Form to the Panel by June 23, 2014.

Anyone who did not participate in the 2013 hearing must make a request to the Panel to make an oral presentation on one or more of the hearing subjects by providing a completed Hearing Participation Form to the Panel by June 23, 2014.

As detailed in the Hearing Procedures, subjects that will be addressed over the course of the hearing days are the following:

• Methodology used to determine the significance of adverse environmental effects
• Updates to the geoscientific verification plan
• Expansion plans for the DGR project
• Relative risk analysis of alternative means of carrying out the project
• Implications of revisions to the reference waste inventory
• Applicability of recent incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to the safety case for the DGR project

Activities and Key dates

Activities	Deadline
Hearing Participation Form 2013 Participants: Intent to make an oral presentation New Participants: Request to make an oral presentation	June 23, 2014
Written submission Proponent and government participants	July 7, 2014
Written submission All other participants	July 21, 2014
Presentation materials (optional) All participants	August 25, 2014
Start of the additional hearing days	September 9, 2014

The amended Hearing Procedures, which include the Hearing Participation Form, are available on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry at www.ceaa.gc.ca , reference number 17520. A preliminary schedule for the hearing will be available in August. A daily agenda, including the list of presenters, will be available each hearing day.  If you have any questions about the review process or participating in the hearing, contact:

Documents submitted or generated as part of the review will be considered public and posted on the online public registry. Written transcripts will be posted to the public registry as soon as they are available. The public hearing will be webcast live through the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission website at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca .

About the Project
The DGR is a proposal by Ontario Power Generation to prepare a site, and construct and operate a facility for the long-term management of low and intermediate level radioactive waste at the Bruce Nuclear site, within the Municipality of Kincardine, Ontario. Low level radioactive waste consists of industrial items that have become contaminated during routine clean up and maintenance activities at nuclear generating stations. Intermediate level radioactive waste consists primarily of used nuclear reactor components, ion-exchange resins, and filters used to purify reactor systems. Used nuclear fuel will not be stored or managed in the DGR.
 

SOURCE: Deep Geologic Repository Joint Review Panel

Media may contact:

Lucille Jamault
Joint Review Panel - Deep Geologic Repository
Tel.: [phone]
[email protected]