What Canadians need to know about nuclear waste storage

This Nov. 1, 2013 photo shows rows of chambers holding intermediate-level radioactive waste in shallow pits at the Bruce Power nuclear complex near Kincardine, Ontario. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo-John Flesher

As demand for cleaner energy swells worldwide, Canada is searching for a place to store its stockpile of spent nuclear fuel. Its choice will affect generations to come as experts look to limit the long-term burden of managing the radioactive by-product, which experts say will remain hazardous "essentially indefinitely."

In late 2024, two Ontario communities will vote on whether to approve a potential $26-billion nuclear waste site in the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area in northwestern Ontario and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario. They are the two remaining options out of more than a dozen other locations that have been screened out or withdrew.

For more than 50 years, nuclear power reactors in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick have been producing electricity from low-carbon nuclear energy for homes and businesses, according to the Toronto-based Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). The country's nuclear electricity producers, Ontario Power Generation, New Brunswick Power Corporation and Hydro-Québec, created the organization in 2002 to develop solutions for managing used nuclear fuel.

To date, the country has amassed a stock of 3.2 million bundles of used fuel. According to the NWMO, that amount could fill nine hockey rinks to the boards if stacked on their sides. It says it’s developing ways to safely manage it. For now, the spent fuel is sitting inside seven licensed facilities near nuclear power stations in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, and in one laboratory in Manitoba.

‘SAFE, BUT TEMPORARY’

"Today’s method is safe, but temporary," the organization wrote on its website. "It requires ongoing maintenance and management, which isn’t sustainable over the very long period the material must be contained and isolated."

Instead, developers are looking to store the spent fuel deep underground. The facility would sit more than 500 metres below the surface – which is just short of the height of Toronto’s CN Tower.

"Today, after more than a decade of detailed studies led by our science and engineering teams, the NWMO is confident that a deep geological repository could safely contain and isolate Canada’s used nuclear fuel at either of the two potential sites," it wrote online.

The deep geological repository uses a multiple-barrier system, which the organization says follows international best practices and takes feedback from Canadians and Indigenous Peoples into consideration.

It noted the plan aligns with the long-term management approach adopted by other countries with nuclear power programs such as Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and France.

Once it's buried, the NWMO plans to continuously monitor the used nuclear fuel. It is also developing a way to move the used fuel from the existing storage to the new site. It said it would consult with and engage communities throughout the process.

HOW DOES NUCLEAR FUEL BREAK DOWN?

Storage needs to be safe and stable, as used fuel remains a health risk for hundreds of thousands of years, according to the NWMO. The used fuel’s radioactivity level declines rapidly over time, it said, but some radioactivity and chemical toxicity lingers.

"Used nuclear fuel will be shielded at all times to ensure radiation doses to members of the public and operating staff are as low as reasonably achievable,” the organization wrote, adding the eventual radiation levels would be “well below regulatory limits.”

"Canada has a robust regulatory framework that governs the handling of used nuclear fuel," it stated. "Used nuclear fuel is carefully managed and shielded at all times to ensure that no one is exposed to an unshielded bundle."

Used nuclear fuel is most radioactive immediately after it’s removed from a reactor. Most of that radioactivity decays after 10 years of cooling at a reactor site.

"While the hazard continues to diminish over time, for practical purposes, used nuclear fuel remains hazardous, essentially indefinitely," added the NWMO.

Excessive exposure to a certain kind of radiation can damage living tissue and lead to uncontrolled growth of cells such as cancer or other serious health effects.

"It is assumed that all radiation carries some risk and radiation levels should be kept as low as possible,” it said.

OTHER COUNTRIES' NUCLEAR PLANS

Nearly all countries with a commercial nuclear power production plan to isolate nuclear byproduct and store it in a deep geological repository, the NWMO says, including Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

The United States operates more than 100 nuclear power plants, which account for about 20 per cent of its electricity. Those facilities will be at the end of their operating lives by 2050, and the country remains at an impasse over what to do with its spent fuel.

Finland has the world's first permanent storage site for used nuclear fuel for its 500-million-euro Onkalo project, the BBC reported. It is expected to operate in about two years.

The disposal site includes the repository, which is more than 400 metres deep, underground facilities such as an access tunnel and vertical shafts, and buildings for ventilation, lifting equipment and tunnels.

With files from The Canadian Press