YES! Experimental SMRs DO need an impact assessment

Dear Impact Assessment Agency,

Dear Minister Guilbeault,

As a citizen of Saint John, New Brunswick, I am very concerned that, just a short drive from my house, the SMR Demonstration Project at Point Lepreau on the Bay of Fundy could proceed without a full Impact Assessment. I urge you, as Minister of the Environment, to ensure that this project will receive a COMPLETE and FULL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT! In my opinion, exempting SMRs from an Impact Assessment means the Government of Canada is placing more importance on the interests of the nuclear industry, at the expense of the Canadian public.

This EXPERIMENTAL nuclear project is on the traditional territory of MY FRIENDS, the Peskotomuhkati Nation with ramifications for the rights of the Wolastoqey and Mi'gmaq Nations. Treaty and Indigenous rights must be included in the Impact Assessment.

The proposed project will be located in a beautiful, coastal rural region WHERE MY HUSBAND, David H. Thompson, GREW UP AND TO WHICH HE CONTINUES TO HAVE MANY TIES. He was one of the founding fathers in the designation of the Musquash Estuary as a Marine Protected Area, and we both worked to bring the MPA into being. He continues to serve as a member of the Friends of Musquash citizen group.

The SMR nuclear project would be in an area with important commercial fishing, tourism and wild blueberry industries. There are also several important nature preserves in the area.

As the SMR project relies on experimental technologies, it should not be allowed without a thorough assessment! Furthermore, claims that the project will ‘recycle’ nuclear waste are foolhardy and dangerous. Please don't allow nuclear waste to be removed from storage silos to be processed in my back yard! Furthermore, recycling used nuclear fuel creates new forms of radioactive waste that are especially dangerous to manage. Finally, SMRs will make more nuclear waste, increasing the risk of hazardous accidents for thousands of years to come.

The SMR Demonstration Project at Point Lepreau SHOULD attract the most rigorous form of public engagement and planning, through the Impact Assessment Act.

I fully support the request by the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB) for you to designate this project for a FULL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT!

Urgently,

Sincerely,
Mary Milander
<Email address removed>  E2M 2X9