The Nuclear Waste Management Organization continues to get feedback on environmental studies in the Ignace area for a potential deep geological repository for Canada’s used nuclear fuel.
An online engagement session was recently held for community members.
Joanne Jacyk is the Section Manger for Environmental Assessment for the NWMO and says the third session was a follow-up to previous consultations.
“We came back with the design that’s almost ready to go out. To check and make sure that the input that we received from the first two rounds of workshops, people could see the link and final program, identify any last minute gaps that we may have missed.”
She notes there was great discussion on the current stressors and areas of interest on the local environment.
“What we really heard was that we were on the right track. We heard that people saw their original input from the beginning and saw how it was treated in the final design. And that this was an approach that they wanted to continue to stay involved in.”
Jacyk says they are trying to determine if they are asking the right questions so they can proceed with collecting the right type of data.
“That data actually tells the story. It tells us what’s going on in the environment. It tells us what changes have maybe already occurred because of climate, because of natural activity, because of commercial activity.”
Jacyk says after that they can better understand what the potential impacts will be on the area.
She notes the next step after the environmental studies is finalizing the program and to start the actual monitoring of the data.
Jacyk stresses they are still in the very early stages of their environment studies and public consultations will be on-going.
To hear more from Joanne Jacyk, visit the Audio link below.
