Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization will begin preparing borehole sites this year at the South Bruce site in the province of Ontario and plans to begin drilling next spring, according to a recent update to the South Bruce Community Liaison Committee.
South Bruce is one of two sites the organization is considering to build a permanent underground disposal facility to store Canada’s spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has already begun borehole drilling in the second potential location, the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario, where they’ve drilled four holes with plans to drill two more in the spring.
The NWMO, formed in 2002 by Canadian nuclear utilities, started its search for a site in 2010 with 22 potential locations, which it narrowed down to two earlier this year. After selecting the site, which the organization plans to do by 2023, the NWMO will build and operate it over the course of 50 years.
The nonprofit expects to invest up to $50 million Canadian (U.S. $37.8 million) between now and the end of 2021 on technical site evaluations in the two study areas, including borehole drilling and additional site characterization activities, spokesperson Bradley Hammond told RadWaste Monitor in an email Friday morning.
On Wednesday, the NWMO announced it procured 1,500 acres of land to use for borehole drilling and site evaluations at the South Bruce site, adding on to the 1,300 acres the organization procured earlier this year.
Within the nearly 3,000 acre site, the NWMO requires around 250 acres for its facilities. It will leave the rest of the land to be used as it is today.
Covid-19 halted the organization’s operations earlier this year, forcing it to pause drilling at the Ignace site to prevent further spread of the virus.
NWMO will drill two boreholes at the South Bruce site, each to a depth of roughly 900 meters with a diameter of 85 millimeters, Hammond said.
Six are planned in the Ignace area.
The project will cost around $24 billion Canadian (U.S. $18.3 billion) and will bury a projected 5.2 million bundles of radioactive used fuel 500 meters underground.
