Editor;

On July 28, the municipality of Meaford passed a resolution not to support the Deep Geological Repository for low and intermediate level nuclear waste. The plan is to bury nuclear waste 560 metres deep and 1.2 km from Lake Huron, a source of fresh water for more than 40 million people living around the Great Lakes in Canada and the United States.

Before my deputation to Meaford council, I have submitted many documents about nuclear waste in Canada and around the world. What was disturbing were two recent discoveries. First was Frank Greening's letter to the Joint Review Panel chaired by Ms. Stella Swanson.

Mr. Greening has a PhD in chemistry, and worked for Ontario Hydro and Ontario Power Generation for more than 30 years as a chemist. He stated that the inventory of nuclear waste has been significantly underestimated.

Second, in February 2014 the Joint Review Panel asked OPG and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to report on a radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a site for nuclear waste in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The WIPP was cited by OPG in its regulatory findings as an example of a successful facility. This same facility was visited by members of the Joint Review Panel so they could better understand OPG's proposed facility in Kincardine.

The WIPP is operated by the U.S Department of Energy and is used to store radioactive materials from the U.S nuclear weapons program, in vaults carved into salt deposits. Southwestern Ontario has many salt caverns. The United States does not have another nuclear waste facility since the Yucca Mountain site was stopped in 2011 after nine years of construction. Reason; weak geological formation.

Since low and intermediate-level waste will stay dangerously radioactive for more than 100,000 years and there is no guarantee that the DGR facility will not fail, we should not put this burden on future generations. A better place may be the stable granite formation of the Canadian shield, which was suggested by Ontario Hydro back in 1988.

The municipalities of Meaford and the Blue Mountains have gone on record joining more than fifty municipalities and counties around the Great Lakes both in Canada and United States opposing the deep geological repository for nuclear waste in Kincardine.

Today I am proud to be a resident of Sydenham, Meaford. Thanks to all council members, specially councillor Ms. Lynda Stephens who called for the resolution.

Joseph Leung

Annan