With the chosen deep geological repository site for Canada’s used nuclear fuel in Northwestern Ontario undergoing a multi-year regulatory decision-making process, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has begun to search for a second such site.
The NWMO released a discussion document last June on its proposed approach for siting a deep geological repository for intermediate-level and high-level radioactive waste.
Chantelle Gascon, municipal relations manager with the NWMO, said this initiative aligns with expanded responsibilities of the organization that were assigned to them by Canada’s minister of energy and natural resources in 2023.
“For the second (deep geological repository), we will continue our longstanding focus on technical safety and community willingness as the primary site selection criteria,” Gascon said. “We are inviting feedback from municipalities, Canadians and Indigenous Peoples to further refine our proposed approach, before we begin the site selection process for this repository in 2028.”
While the first deep geological repository will be built to store exclusively used nuclear fuel from existing CANDU (Canada deuterium uranium) reactors, Joanne Jacyk, NWMO site selection director, explained that the intermediate-level and high-level non-fuel waste, and potentially used fuel from new nuclear projects, are to be stored at the second deep geological repository site.
“Intermediate level waste actually covers a really broad range of materials, Jacyk said. “We predominantly get it from reactor cores; it comes from resins and filters, but it also comes from the manufacturing of medical isotopes.”
She said it is different because used fuel is exclusively from a reactor.
“The other thing that’s different is intermediate-level waste can still have long-lived radionuclides that need to be isolated from the environment in the long term, but they generally don’t emit a lot of heat,” she explained. “The reason that’s important is, when you’re designing a repository, you need to account for that heat distribution over time, and that’s one of the main category differences.”
She said high-level, non-fuel waste is very specific and it comes from medical isotope production. This waste can generate a significant amount of heat and radioactivity and requires containment and isolation for hundreds of thousands of years in a deep geological repository.
“People often forget that in the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are regulators, there are other countries that have been looking into this for 30 to 40 years, and there’s a lot of international collaboration. And really, for the long-life radionuclides, for intermediate level waste and high level waste, the only accepted solution is a deep geological repository,” Jacyk said. “We’re really complying with the best thoughts out there for the safest outcome over the long term.”
During the search process for the Ignace-Wabigoon deep geological repository site, 22 communities entered the NWMO Learn More process. Jacyk says that took them a little by surprise.
“That’s actually one of the things that we’re also seeking input on in the second signing process. What’s the likelihood of a lot of communities coming in, and how do we make it fair for the communities that are interested?” she said.
