Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) said Wednesday it is accepting public input on an updated plan for storage of radioactive waste at the Chalk River Laboratories site in Ontario.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ (CNL) revamped project description for the Near Surface Disposal Facility now involves management of a small amount of intermediate-level and mixed waste, rather than just low-level waste.
CNL is considering two locations on the laboratory property for a facility with the capacity to hold 1 million cubic meters of radioactive waste. Materials that would be stored in the facility, according to the project plan, include: stored waste that was the byproduct of legacy CNL operational and decommissioning operations, as well as prior commercial work; waste from decommissioning of current buildings and cleanup of contaminated land; and waste produced in the future from operations, commercial activities, and decommissioning of future buildings or other infrastructure, as well as from soil remediation when Chalk River is ultimately closed.
Of that waste, only 1 percent by volume is expected to be intermediate-level waste, which the document says involves “higher levels of radioactivity that may require shielding for worker protection during handling, and may contain higher concentrations of longer-lived radionuclides.”
The facility, an engineered mound with multiple storage cells, is expected to have a 50-year operational life.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a private entity contracted for management and operations of sites and projects overseen by Atomic Energy of Canada, including Chalk River and the Port Hope Area Initiative for radioactive waste cleanup and storage. CNL began as a wholly owned subsidiary of the crown corporation before being shifted in 2015 to the Canadian National Energy Alliance, a partnership of CH2M Hill, Atkins, Fluor, SNC-Lavalin, and Rolls-Royce.
A siting decision for the Near Surface Disposal Facility is due next year. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is also preparing an environmental assessment for review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. With approval from the commission, it would start work on the facility in 2018 and begin operations in 2020.
The commission is taking comments through Nov. 18. “Comments should be based on local, regional or traditional knowledge of the site or surrounding environment, or should provide any other relevant information that may help with the conduct of the environmental assessment (EA),” according to a press release. “All comments received will be considered public.”
Comments can be submitted to Nicole Frigault, Environmental Assessment Specialist, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, P.O. Box 1046 Station B, 280 Slater Street Ottawa ON K1P 5S9, or by email at [email protected].
