June 18, 2013: Today the Joint Review Panel issued its notice that the public hearing will begin on September 16th, 2013. The deadline to register as a participant in the hearing is July 5th. Written submissions must be sent to the Panel Secretariat by August 13th. Click here for details. Read updated Project Backgrounders and Northwtach's Summary of Panel Hearing Procedures to learn more about the review and how you can participate. Register on-line by clicking here.
Ontario Power Generation is asking the federal government to approve their proposal to bury nuclear waste under the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, near Kincardine on the eastern shore of Lake Huron.
It's not the only one! The Nuclear Waste Management Organization - an association of nuclear power companies - is currently studying several communities in the Bruce area, a dozen in northern Ontario and three northern Saskatchewan as potential burial sites for high level nuclear fuel waste. Learn more
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Currently, the low and intermediate level radioactive wastes from the Darlington, Pickering and Bruce nuclear generating stations are shipped from the reactor stations to the Bruce station to be incinerated or stored in the Western Waste Management Facility. If the burial proposal is approved, the radioactive wastes stored at the WWMF would be buried on-site.
Low level wastes include contaminated mops, rags, and other industrial items that have become contaminated with low levels of radioactivity during routine clean-up and maintenance activities at nuclear generating stations. Intermediate level radioactive waste consists primarily of used nuclear reactor components, ion-exchange resins and filters used in reactor water filtration systems. Intermediate level wastes are highly radioactive. Nuclear fuel waste is called high level waste, and it is not currently proposed to be included in the wastes to be placed in the underground caverns Ontario Power Generation is seeking approval to construct at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station. However, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is currently studying more than twenty communities in Canada as potential burial locations for high level waste. Learn more |
