An organization tasked with managing Canada’s nuclear waste found one site to store millions of bundles of radioactive used fuel for thousands of years hundreds of metres underground — and now it’s looking for a second.
As the Nuclear Waste Management Organization begins the regulatory process for a deep geological repository site in northern Ontario to store spent nuclear fuel, after a 14-year site-selection journey, it’s also starting to look at the need for another site to hold different types of nuclear waste.
The used fuel from Canada’s current fleet of nuclear reactors is ultimately destined for the first deep geological repository, expected to be in operation starting in the 2040s.
But aside from that high-level waste, the NWMO said there needs to be a long-term plan to manage intermediate-level waste and high-level waste that isn’t fuel.
That includes used components from nuclear reactors such as filters, resins and pumps, …