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What We Heard

Modernizing Canada's Radioactive Waste Policy > What we heard

Status: Ongoing - 2022

The public comment period on the draft Policy for Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning closed on April 2, 2022. We are currently considering the feedback you provided to help us finalize a modernized policy that is expected for release in 2022. To see comments, ideas and documents submitted on the draft Policy, Visit our Draft Policy page.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) connected with a wide range of organizations, Indigenous groups and interested Canadians. We wanted to hear first-hand how they would like to be engaged on modernizing Canada’s radioactive waste policy, and what they would like to see in a modernized policy. NRCan led the engagement sessions with the support of other federal government departments with responsibilities for the management of radioactive waste in Canada.

What We Heard reports provide an overview of the conversations we had during our engagement sessions and can be found on this page.

Final report: What We Heard: Modernizing Canada’s for Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning

This final report sets out the context for the management of radioactive waste and decommissioning in Canada, the oversight regime that applies, and the main points of feedback we heard on modernizing Canada’s policy for radioactive waste management and decommissioning. We received views on:

values and principles to modernize the policy
the roles and responsibilities of government, the regulator, industry and others
Canadians’ perspectives for the policy as it relates to several topics, including radioactive waste minimization, storage, decommissioning, and disposal

Download final Report
(PDF, 2.1 MB)

Engagement Summary Reports 1 and 2

These reports provide a snapshot of views and perspectives we have received from interested Canadians including Indigenous groups regarding Canada’s radioactive waste policy. Engagement Summary Report 1 summarizes views and perspectives received between November 16, 2020 and February 19, 2021. Engagement Summary Report 2 summarizes views and perspectives received between February 20, 2021 and May 14, 2021.

Download Report 1
(PDF, 705 KB)

Download Report 2
(PDF, 788 KB)

Submissions: Your views on modernizing Canada’s radioactive waste policy

Over the course of the engagement process, we heard from Canadians from diverse backgrounds and regions including Indigenous peoples who have a wide range of views and perspectives about the modernization of Canada’s radioactive waste policy.