Ontario Power Generation (OPG) maintains that a location near Lake Huron is the best for the company’s planned deep geologic repository (DGR) for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, after considering alternate options as requested by Canada’s top environmental official.
The Ontario government-owned corporation announced Tuesday that it has made its case to Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, saying that opting for an alternate site would boost the estimated $13 billion (CAN) project cost by $1.2 billion to $3.5 billion. Additionally, the company cited increased environmental and transportation impacts of moving the project to another location. OPG said further that while the original location could be ready to operate in 10 years, the others would not be ready for 30 to 40 years.
McKenna — who has fielded criticism from environmentalists, residents, and lawmakers on both sides of the border for the facility’s potential impacts on the Great Lakes – requested the alternative studies in February. In December she punted for a third time on deciding whether to move forward with the repository plan, saying her office needs more time to analyze the project, extending the timeline for at least another six months and potentially another year.
OPG has proposed building the repository 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 stations at Darlington, Pickering, and Bruce. The company has said the material would be isolated in impermeable limestone.
The alternate locations were a crystalline granite site in central to northern Ontario and a sedimentary site in southwestern Ontario, both of which satisfy the criteria for the project. The waste for the past 40 years has been stored at the Western Waste Management Facility in Kincardine.
