A three-member federal panel in Canada has approved of burial of low and intermediate-level radioactive materials from nuclear power plants at a site 0.7 miles from the shores of Lake Huron, which became a rallying cry for anti-nuclear groups who claimed the project would threaten a massive supply of drinking water.
Ontario Power Generation submitted the plans to bury reactor parts and utility items, such as contaminated mop heads, almost a half a mile deep (2,230 feet), as a permanent site. The chief advantage of the 2,300-acre site, which already houses the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, is that most of the radioactive material requiring long-term storage would come from the power plant, which eliminates the requirement of hazardous shipping of material to another location.
The plan is to bury about 200,000 cubic meters of low and intermediate-level waste in a rock formation that has been stable for 450 million years, according to OPG. The material, in contrast, would be radioactive for about 100,000 years.
The plan has already received approval from town council in Kincardine, Ontario, which has municipal jurisdiction over the site.
Approval for the project now goes to the Canadian government. If the government in Ottawa says yes, it then falls back to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to issue a license. OPG, however, has also said it would seek permission from Saugeen First of the Ojibway Nation, the native tribe whose homelands include the Bruce Peninsula.
Environmental groups said they were disappointed in the decision, which they claim will threaten Lake Huron and, in turn, the Great Lakes, which are said to provide drinking water to about 40 million people.
The panel laid out steps to mitigate the project's environmental impact. OPG Senior Vice President Laurie Swami said the company would review the recommendations, “many of which reinforce our commitment to the stewardship of the Great Lakes.”
The company currently estimates construction of the repository could start in 2018 and be ready to receive materials by 2025.