Part 1 of 2 Parts
Canada has developed plans for achieving net zero carbon emissions. The plan involves a host of strategies ranging from conservation efforts to the deployment of wind and sola energy technology.
Canada is also exploring how small modular reactors (SMRs) could play a critical role in providing abundant energy as part of a low-carbon future. SMRs are a new class of nuclear reactors that are smaller in size and lower in power output than conventional nuclear power reactors.
SMR are nuclear reactor that generate up to three hundred megawatts. They will be constructed in a factory and shipped to the operational site in modules for assembly. It is hoped that standardized components and quality control available in a factory setting will make them safer, more efficient and less expensive that the currently commercial nuclear power reactors which each generate a gigawatt of power or more.
SMRs and other emerging approaches will result in spent nuclear fuel. Regardless of how much spent nuclear fuel is produced, it must be stored in isolation for a very long time.
Canada has a plan to safely contain, and isolate Canada’s spent nuclear fuel. The plan includes the spent nuclear fuel that has already been generated by the existing fleet of CANDU reactors and all the spent fuel that will be produced in the future. This includes spent nuclear fuel generated from SMRs.
In 2002, under their Nuclear Fuel Waste Act, the Canadian federal government tasked a non-profit organization, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), to engage with Canadians and Indigenous Peoples to devise a plan to safely contain and isolate Canada’s spent nuclear fuel. The NWMO is supposed to implement that plan to protect people and the environment for generations to come.
Canada’s plan for safely managing and isolating spent nuclear fuel involves the construction a deep geological repository. The repository will be located more than sixteen hundred feet underground in a stable rock formation. The rock will provide long-term stability against the effects of climate change, earthquakes, glacial cycles and other further geological changes.
A multiple barrier systems consisting of a series of engineered and natural barriers will safely contain and isolate spent nuclear fuel. International consensus indicates that deep geological repositories represent the safest approach for the long-term management of spent nuclear fuel. Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, France and others are all working on a similar approach.
Sara Dolatshahi is the director of strategic projects at the NWMO. She said, “Whether we’re talking about spent nuclear fuel that has been generated over the past half-century, produced by existing nuclear reactors, or new emerging fuel types that will be created in the future, it remains our responsibility and mandate to ensure used nuclear fuel is safely managed over the long term.”
The site-selection process that will host the repository has been underway since 2010. It began with twenty two municipalities and Indigenous communities that expressed interest in learning more and exploring their potential to host the project.
Please read Part 2 next