Canada’s top environmental official has once again extended the timeline for an approval decision on Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) plans to build a deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level waste near Lake Huron.
Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said her office needs more time to “take into account circumstances that are specific to the project.” McKenna’s office will once again gather information from Ontario Power Generation, and after that will have at least 243 days to make a decision, according to Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency spokeswoman Anita Szerze.
The Ontario government-owned corporation had expected to deliver by the end of the year additional findings that McKenna had already requested supporting the plan to build a storage site at its Bruce nuclear power facility in Kincardine, Ontario, near Lake Huron.
The deep geologic repository (DGR) would be built 680 meters underground for permanent storage of 200,000 cubic meters of waste from three OPG nuclear power plants. The plan has proven controversial on both sides of the border due to fears of radioactive contamination of one of the Great Lakes. This is the third timeline extension for a decision on the project.
