“Low-level” waste is a misnomer that causes a lot of confusion. “Low-level” waste is so named because it can be handled without using robots or special shielding, unlike used nuclear fuel rods which can provide a fatal dose of radiation within seconds to a person standing a few feet away.

“Low-level” radioactive waste can contain very hazardous materials. Man-made isotopes such as plutonium, neptunium, and americium have extremely long half lives. They are highly toxic and will be around for thousands of years. Yet significant quantities are destined for this facility if it gets approved.

 “The incredibly complex and messy radioactive contamination at the Chalk River site has gone largely ignored for almost 70 years – see http://ccnr.org/crl_sacrifice.pdf ]. Now, within the span of a few years, we have the prospect of foreign companies making profits at Canadian taxpayer expense by building a “quick and dirty” gigantic mound of radioactive waste that will be difficult or impossible to remediate when it starts falling apart. The mound would include fission products like cesium-137, strontium-90, and iodine-129, transuranic actinides like plutonium, neptunium and americium, and activation products like tritium, nickel-59 and carbon-14, along with 14 tons of asbestos and lots of toxic chemicals, in a hopelessly entangled mix that will be poorly characterized and impossibly difficult for future generations to try to deal with.”

Read the submission: goo.gl/9io9Vq