Citizen Panels Program

During the study phase of NWMO's work, the NWMO was told that any plan for implementing a long term management approach for used nuclear fuel in Canada must not only involve a wide variety of specialists but ordinary citizens as well.  The Citizen Panel program of work was designed to bring together a group of citizens, selected at random in each of the four provinces involved in the nuclear fuel cycle, to meet periodically to input to its early plans over the course of four meetings.  These Panels were designed to complement other engagement activites launched by the NWMO to solicit the input of citizens including:  comments and submissions to the NWMO website, e-dialogues, web surveys and meetings and briefing sessions upon request.  The topics discussed by the Panels largely mirrored those which were the focus of NWMO's other engagement activities.  The panels were recruited, organized, administered and reported on by a third party contractor (Navigator).  As is the case with other NWMO engagement activities, the locations for the panels were chosen to include major population centres in each of the the nuclear provinces and/or regions so that a broad range of views might be heard on these early planning questions. 

Topics discussed included:

• Review of and comment on NWMO's first corporate brochure (Phase 1 - conducted Fall 2007)

• Input to the development of NWMO's first implementation plan (Phase 2 - conducted early 2008) and subsequent review of portions of a draft of this document which were published on the NWMO website for comment (Phase 3 - conducted early Spring 2008))

• Review of the framework of values and objectives suggested as the starting point for collaborative development of the siting process, as identified in NWMO's earlier report to Goverment, Choosing a Way Forward.  The Future Management of Canada's Used Nuclear Fuel (Phase 4 - conducted late Spring 2008).

For each phase of work, meeting notes were prepared for each of the Citizen Panel sessions and are published here.   These notes were reviewed and approved by the Citizen Panelists attending the session.  As well a summary report, bringing together the highlights of the individual Panel sessions convened during that phase, was prepared and is also published here.

Please share your thoughts on any of the topics explored by the NWMO Citizen Panels by clicking on the Submissions tool below.  Your comments will be posted alongside those of the Citizen Panelists and will continue the discussion on these topics.