Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/23/2015
Four more communities in the Northern Ontario-area have advanced in the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s assessment to locate a repository site for the nation’s high-level waste, the NWMO announced this week. The communities include the City of Elliot Lake, the Town of Blind River, and the Townships of Manitouwadge and White River. Through a collaboration between the communities and the NWMO, the sites have a “strong potential to meet site selection criteria,” the NWMO said. “As we prepare for more detailed studies and engagement, we need to narrow our focus,” said Kathryn Shaver, Vice President of APM Engagement and Site Selection at the NWMO, said in a statement. “Going forward, studies will continue in areas with strong potential to meet robust safety requirements and for the project to align with the community’s long-term vision.”
The four communities join a list totaling 11 sites that have advanced in the country’s assessment, including two communities in the Toronto area announced last month. Initially, Canada identified 22 sites that could potentially host a deep geologic repository, but it has slowly over the past year eliminated sites that do not meet initial criteria. According to NWMO, phase one assessments used to evaluate the communities involved an analysis of the potential for an area to meet or exceed strict technical requirements, and whether the project aligned with the community’s long-term goals and vision. For their participation and completion of the preliminary stage, each community will receive a $400,000 grant from the government “to build community sustainability and well-being,” the NWMO said. “Each of these communities has shown tremendous leadership in advancing this major national project on behalf of all Canadians,” said Ms. Shaver. “Each community that has reached this stage of the process has helped ensure that discussion and learning continues, and that important questions about safety are asked.”
Second Stage Involves Closer Look at Geological Characteristics
Following this stage, the communities now enter a more technically-involved phase of the assessment where the NWMO will look closer at the site’s geologic characteristics. Preliminary fieldwork will involve geological surveys, and at later date, limited borehole drilling, to further assess geology and site suitability against technical safety requirements, the NWMO said. At the same time, the organization will increase public education efforts, and the work will also include surrounding community and First Nation tribes. The NWMO expects these next steps to take several years, but it maintained communities can exit the process at any point. “It is expected to take several more years to complete the necessary studies to identify a preferred site and an informed and willing host,” the NWMO said in a release. “Communities may choose to end their involvement at any point during the site evaluation process, until a final agreement is signed, subject to all regulatory requirements being met and approvals received.”
Canada’s spent nuclear fuel program has followed the consent-based approach to siting a repository. The NWMO was created by electricity producers to manage the country’s nuclear waste. As required by Canadian law, producers of the waste are responsible for its disposal. According to the NWMO, the cost of the disposal over the life of the management, including on-site storage, repository construction, and transportation, is estimated between $16 billion and $24 billion.
