A proposal by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to bury millions of spent and radioactive fuel rods from the country’s nuclear reactors in a specialized underground facility near Ignace is going to be subject to a federal independent review panel process.
The decision by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to refer the project to a review panel — which appeared on the agency’s website late Monday — is based on a number of factors, including recent feedback from the public, Indigenous people and First Nations, the agency said.
“(The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada) is satisfied that the carrying out of the designated project may cause adverse effects within federal jurisdiction or direct or incidental adverse effects, including effects on the environment or to health, social or economic conditions,” the agency said.
“As a result, (the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada) has decided that a further assessment is required for the project.”
Details of the review panel weren’t immediately available on Tuesday.
If the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s proposed underground storage site, formally known as a deep geological repository (DGR) is approved, it would bury in a controlled environment nearly six million spent nuclear-fuel rod bundles from the country’s nuclear power plants over several decades.
“The project is expected to span approximately 160 years, encompassing site preparation, construction, operation and closure monitoring,” the impact assessment agency says in a backgrounder.
On Feb. 16, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization received the assessment agency’s summary of issues document gleaned from numerous interested parties, including private citizens, First Nations and environmental groups.
The summary listed potential impacts of the deep geological repository on ground-water, tourism, mental health, as well as the prospect of truck crashes involving radioactive materials.
In written responses to Indigenous groups that appeared last week, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, commonly known as the NWMO, told Rainy River First Nations that emergency preparedness and responses are part of the project’s planning process.
“This includes emergency planning for transportation incidents, operational malfunctions, and unlikely failure scenarios,” the NWMO said.
“Emergency response plans must meet federal regulatory requirements and will be subject to review, testing, and inspection by the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission),” it added.
In another reply, the NWMO told Grassy Narrows First Nation its project “is anticipated to pose a low risk of residual adverse effects to air quality, surface water, groundwater.”
“Based on extensive studies completed to date, no contamination of air, land or water is anticipated that would affect the safe use of waters for drinking, fishing, or other land-based practices,” it added.
In regard to the potential transport of nuclear-fuel bundles to the proposed deep geological repository, the proponent in a response to Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation said fallout from crashes would be contained.
“If there are accidents involving used nuclear fuel shipments, we expect that they would be similar to conventional traffic accidents, with no release of radioactive material due to the nature of the transportation package,” the NWMO said.
Spent nuclear fuel rods, which remain radioactive, are currently stored at the country’s nuclear power plants. The NWMO has said they could be railed or trucked to the future deep geological repository, if it’s approved, in specialized containers designed to withstand hard impacts and fiery crashes.
In an earlier reaction to the potential transportation of the fuel rods, an Indigenous consortium that included Fort William First Nation said it didn’t feel assured.
“While limited transportation of nuclear materials occurs in Canada, the proposed (deep geological repository) project would require the sustained, decades-long transportation of unprecedented volumes of high-level radioactive waste across vast geographic areas, including numerous Indigenous territories,” the consortium said.
It added: “This activity is neither routine nor ongoing in any meaningful regulatory sense.”
