5 Dec 2024
A graveyard for nuclear waste
After decades of study and preparation Canada has found a place to bury highly radioactive used fuel from the country’s nuclear reactors. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has picked Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the Township of Ignace as the host communities for the future site for Canada’s deep geological repository for spent fuel. The site is on the Canadian Shield between the two small communities. It is about 250 km northwest of Thunder Bay, ON and as much as 1,600 km from nuclear power plants in Southern Ontario. The repository is a huge mine in reverse. Instead of taking stuff out of the ground people will put it about 500 metres below the surface where it is supposed to remain untouched for eternity. According to the NWMO the site is not expected to start operations before 2040. Nuclear fuel is what runs Canada’s nuclear power plants, which produce about 16 per cent of the country’s electricity. Almost all are in Ontario. Over time the radioactive material decays and must be replaced. So far there are 3.3 million used nuclear fuel bundles, each about the size of a firelog. It amounts to about 80,000 tonnes with more every year. The radioactive bundles are now stored at the nuclear power plants but Canada, like other nations with nuclear reactors, has been looking for a permanent disposal site far from people and the risk of accidents. There is a global consensus that deep underground storage is the best solution and a number of countries are in the process of creating their own sites.