Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
4/4/2014
A Canadian review panel responsible for evaluating the safety case for Ontario Power Generation’s proposed Deep Geological Repository has asked the company to resubmit its assessment of potential radionuclide inventories, according to a letter dated March 21. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s Joint Review Panel’s request stemmed from a former OPG employee’s charge that the calculations for the DGR did not accurately estimate the waste’s true values. “Recent correspondence between Dr. Frank Greening and the NWMO [Nuclear Waste Management Organization] has raised questions regarding the accuracy of OPG’s 2010 Reference Waste Inventory of L&ILW [Low and Intermediate Level Waste] that would be emplaced into the proposed DGR,” the Joint Review Panel’s Chair, Stella Swanson, wrote in the request for the resubmittal. “These questions concern radionuclide concentrations in CANDU pressure tubes and garter springs for which the concentrations of some radioisotopes appear to have been significantly underestimated or not estimated at all. The underestimates appear to be due to the use of calculated values and scaling factors, rather than measured values.”
Two weeks ago, OPG said that Greening’s analysis was under internal consideration, but a spokesman for the company this week reiterated that OPG’s analysis shows that the DGR will provide safe containment. “OPG’s preliminary safety analysis shows that the DGR provides long-term isolation and containment with significant safety margin,” OPG spokesman Neal Kelly said. “We have checked the revised radioactivities, and the safety case remains valid. OPG will, of course, consider all new information as we move forward, to establish a more refined final safety analysis.” Kelly also said that the characterization of the potential waste streams is an on-going process. “Recognizing that some waste remained to be fully characterized, OPG’s preliminary safety analysis was done with a significant amount of conservatism,” Kelly said. “Characterization of the waste is an ongoing process and OPG had indicated this in the hearing process. As we go forward, we will continue to obtain measurements of the waste inventory before it is emplaced into the repository.”
Events at WIPP Enter Conversation
The request from the Joint Review Panel also included a portion dedicated to finding out how the events at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the United States could affect and enlighten OPG’s analysis. The WIPP facility, which shut down after a truck fire and radiological release in February, has dominated media headlines for the past month, raising some concerns about geologic disposal. “Recent events at the WIPP have received media attention and raised concerns with interested parties,” Swanson said. “The requested information will provide context for the Panel’s review of the proposed DGR.”
Repository Would be Located Close to Lake Huron
The proposed repository would be located beneath Ontario Power Generation’s Bruce nuclear facility. OPG plans on storing low and intermediate waste from its Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington power stations at the proposed repository, which would be located 680 meters below the surface in an isolated rock formation of shale and limestone. The review of the proposal to build the DGR has had its fair share of complaints, though. Most notably, a portion of the Michigan Congressional delegation wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry in October calling on the U.S. government to intervene to prevent the construction of the facility. Currently, the licensing of the facility is under review by a Joint Review Panel under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. After the public comment period, the review panel will submit an environmental assessment report within 90 days to the federal Minister of the Environment with its recommendations for the path forward. Once the federal government gives the go-ahead, the review panel can issue a license to prepare a site and construct a deep geological repository.
