YES! Experimental SMRs DO need an impact assessment

DearImpact Assessment Agency,

Dear Minister Guilbeault,

I was very concerned to learn that the SMR Demonstration Project at Point Lepreau on the Bay of Fundy could proceed without a full environmental Impact Assessment. We already have working green energy technology in this country, but instead of investing in it, various levels of governments are throwing money at nuclear power companies, who already have money of their own. And now, on top of that, the government is so crazy-eager to get some of these experimental nuclear reactors going that it's willing to forgo any concern about environmental impact. That doesn't make sense to me.

I urge you, as Minister of the Environment, to ensure that this project has the benefit of a full environmental Impact Assessment.

This first of its kind experimental nuclear project is on the traditional territory of 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 with locally important fishing, tourism and wild blueberry industries, next to the Musquash Estuary Nature Reserve and near the globally significant UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the Bay of Fundy.

The SMR Demonstration Project at Point Lepreau ought to 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 an Impact Assessment.

Sincerely,

Sincerely,
Vivian Unger
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