The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is accepting public comments on a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the planned Near Surface Disposal Facility at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, the government’s management and operations contractor for its nuclear facilities, has recommended construction of an engineered containment mound that could hold up to 1 million cubic meters of waste currently stored at, or expected to be produced by, Chalk River facilities. It would be operational for roughly 50 years, starting in 2020, followed by closure operations to 2100 and three centuries of storage under active and passive controls.
About 1 percent of the material by volume in storage would be intermediate-level radioactive waste, with the rest being low-level waste.
The draft EIS issued this month studied potential adverse effects from the project for air quality, hydrogeology, hydrology, surface water quality, terrestrial biodiversity, and socio-economic and community well-being. “Based on the evaluation, each of the residual adverse effects was assessed to be not significant,” expect for a minor increase in existing challenges facing local populations of bats and Blanding’s turtles, the report’s executive summary says.
“No residual effects were identified for human health during the NSDF Project life cycle,” according to the report, prepared by Golder Associates for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories.
Comments on the draft EIS must be submitted by May 17 to Nicole Frigault, an environmental assessment specialist at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. They can be submitted in writing by email: [email protected]; by fax: 613-95-5086; or by mail: P.O. Box 1046 Station B, 280 Slater St., Ottawa, ON KIP 5S9.
Comments will be considered as commission staff decides whether the draft EIS is sufficient or whether additional information is needed. Staff would then prepare a report to help guide the commission’s environmental assessment of the project, with a public hearing expected in January 2018.
