Canada has a responsibility to safely manage nuclear waste for generations — here’s the plan
Protecting people and the environment remains the priority in the lead-up to final selection of nuclear waste repository site
Nuclear power remains an important part of the energy mix supporting climate change strategies in Canada and around the world. Governments worldwide view nuclear as instrumental in the journey to achieving net zero carbon emissions.
But with a commitment to nuclear power comes the responsibility to safely isolate and store used nuclear fuel — including what has accumulated over the past 60 years and what will be generated in the future.
A necessary by-product of generating nuclear power is used nuclear fuel. Although its radioactivity level decreases rapidly with time, the used fuel remains a potential health risk for hundreds of thousands of years. Used fuel must be contained and isolated from people and the environment, essentially indefinitely – and that safety imperative is at the heart of the plan underway to manage used nuclear fuel over the long term.
Canada’s used nuclear fuel is safely managed today in facilities licensed for interim storage. These facilities are located at nuclear reactor sites in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, and at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's sites in Manitoba and Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. Though our existing approach is safe and effective, it has always been understood that it is not a permanent solution.
In 2002, a non-profit organization called the Nuclear
Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was given
the mandate under federal legislation to engage with people in Canada, come up with a plan to safely isolate and store the country’s used nuclear fuel, then implement that plan. Today, Canada’s plan is well under way.
“When we asked Canadians and Indigenous peoples what we should do about used nuclear fuel, they told us that we shouldn’t wait,” says Laurie Swami, president and CEO of the NWMO. “They said we should take action now to provide a long-term solution for used nuclear fuel, rather than passing that burden on to our children and grandchildren.”
Putting people and the environment first, the NWMO has worked closely with municipal and Indigenous communities, industry, regulators, and government to develop an innovative and collaborative solution for safe nuclear waste management: a deep geological repository.
International consensus is that a deep geological repository represents the safest approach to contain used nuclear fuel. And it’s now more than just a theoretical approach. The
construction of such a repository is nearly complete in Finland; Sweden has approved a site for its repository; Switzerland has picked a site for storing its used nuclear fuel; and France will soon apply for a construction license for the country’s repository.
Canada’s own deep geological repository would be built more than 500 metres underground, surrounded by a natural barrier of solid
rock that has been disconnected from the water table for millions of years.
To visualize that depth, imagine an excavation almost as deep as the CN Tower is tall.
The NWMO has been working to identify a site for the deep geological repository since 2010. Twentytwo municipalities and Indigenous communities expressed interest in exploring their potential to host it.
Now, through extensive public engagement and technical studies, two potential sites remain: the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nationignace area in northwestern Ontario and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-south Bruce area in southern Ontario.
The NWMO’S confidence that the proposed sites could safely host the repository is built on decades of research and public engagement, all with safety – of both people and the environment – at the centre.
“At the NWMO, safety is our highest priority. It drives everything we do, from engineering, site investigations, and environmental research to engaging with communities,” says Chris Boyle, vice president and chief engineer, NWMO.
“Indigenous Knowledge and Western science play an
important role in the project,” adds Boyle. “Canada’s plan is the result of this collaboration and aligns with international best practice and benefits from the best available knowledge.”
The project includes a multiple barrier system, where layers of natural and engineered barriers would safely contain the used nuclear fuel. That includes the containers in which the used nuclear fuel would be stored, plus the deep geological repository itself.
In April 2022, after more than eight years of preparation, the NWMO’S technical teams successfully completed a full-scale demonstration of the proposed engineered-barrier system. The containers to be used for the used nuclear fuel were
placed in a life-sized model of one of the repository’s underground storage rooms to perform additional in-depth analysis that will further inform the repository design.
It’s worth noting that NWMO has also undertaken significant work to ensure used nuclear fuel can be safely transported to the site from now-licensed but eventually decommissioned above-ground sites in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Manitoba.
The NWMO anticipates that it will identify a preferred site in 2024. That will initiate an additional series of activities to further assess the plan, including a licensing and regulatory review process of about seven years.
“The design of the repository will incorporate national and international best practice reflecting the most advanced knowledge to date, to protect Canadians and the environment for a thousand years and more,” says Boyle. “We want Canadians to understand that the regulatory decision-making process that will result in site and design has been subject to a comprehensive review.”
“INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND WESTERN SCIENCE PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE PROJECT
For more information on Canada’s plan for managing used nuclear fuel safely over the long term, or to download the Confidence in Safety reports, go to nwmo.ca