STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT IN DEFINING AND IMPLEMENTING AN APPROACH TO THE CLEANUP OF HISTORIC LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES

摘要

The Government of Canada has initiated a $260-million 10-year multi-phase project to cleanup low-level radioactive wastes and contaminated soils in two municipalities and to establish long-term low-level radioactive waste management facilities. Stakeholder involvement in the decision making relating to the project has been key to the initiation of the project and ongoing stakeholder involvement will key to achieving successful implementation. Through the process, the Government empowered the local municipalities to develop their own solution to the local waste problem and accepted that these proposals would become the starting point for the environmental assessment of the project. During that process, the environmental impacts of the municipalities' proposals, as well as alternative proposals, will be examined in an open and consultative review. The Government and the municipalities have committed themselves in a legal agreement to ongoing consultation and cooperation in order to successfully see the project through to implementation. The paper examines the details of the problem, efforts to resolve the problem over the last 25 years, the approach that led to the development of a successful solution, and the importance of stakeholder participation to the process.