Nuclear Waste in Wawa? Public Information Session
NORTHWATCH HOSTS PUBLIC ROUNDTABLE IN WAWA THURSDAY, JULY 28
Several communities in northern Ontario are allowing themselves to be studied as the possible location for an underground repository for all of Canada’s highly radioactive nuclear reactor waste as part of the nuclear industry’s search for a “willing” host.
Wawa’s Municipal Council has expressed its interest in the project to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, the association of companies that generate the wastes and are responsible for its long term management.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization calls their plan to bury nuclear waste deep underground “Adaptive Phased Management”. The key elements of the plan are to place the highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste in copper containers which would in turn be placed in a series of rooms in a repository constructed approximately 500 metres below the surface in a rock formation. This is an approach that has been favoured by the nuclear industry in several countries for many years, but no country has yet approved, constructed and begun operating a similar facility.
- Transportation of nuclear fuel waste will come with its own set of hazards and risks. The practice is relatively unknown in Canada, and the few incidents of highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste being transported in Canada are not comparable to the frequency and volume of transportation that would be required to move all of Canada’s nuclear fuel waste to a single location. There are risks of accident, but there are also concerns with the transport of the fuel under “normal” conditions.
- The concept of burying nuclear waste failed an environmental assessment review in Canada. The NWMOs Adaptive Phased Management is based on Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s 1988 concept of burying nuclear waste in the Canadian Shield. After a ten year review which included 13 months of public hearings the Review Panel concluded in 1998 that the AECL concept had not been demonstrated to be safe and acceptable.
- Many countries are studying the idea or burying nuclear waste, and have been doing so for 30 years. But no one has done it. The NWMO says that their proposal is similar to that of many other countries, but no other country has actually built, approved and begun to use such a facility for the high level waste from nuclear reactors.
Northwatch is a non-profit organization based in northeastern Ontario. Northwatch is committed to environmental and community well-being and to supporting public participation in decision-making processes.
Know Nuclear Waste is a public interest information project about radioactive waste generated by nuclear power production and its long-term management.
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