Canada lands on spent fuel repository site
While the United States was celebrating Thanksgiving Day, Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that it has selected a site in northwestern Ontario for a deep geologic repository to hold the country’s spent nuclear fuel
Concluding a nearly 15-year consent-based process, the NWMO, the not-for-profit organization responsible for managing Canada’s nuclear waste, selected Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and the township of Ignace as the host communities for the future site for Canada’s spent fuel repository.
“This is a historic moment,” said Laurie Swami, NWMO president and chief executive officer in announcing the site selection on November 28. “This project will solve an environmental issue and supports Canada’s climate change goals. And today’s decision was driven by a consent-based siting process led by Canadians and indigenous peoples. This is what making history looks like.”
On November 21, the NWMO announced that the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation indicated its willingness to host a spent fuel repository in the Revell Lake area, about 30 miles west of Ignace. Following a community referendum, Ignace’s town council voted to be a willing host for the project in July.
The NWMO previously identified the site, home to a crystalline rock formation known as the Revell batholith, as being potentially suitable for hosting a repository. Depending on the rock characteristics, a repository would be built at a depth of about 500 meters, with an underground footprint of about 1,480 acres.
Next steps: The repository project will now advance into the regulatory process, with the NWMO seeking licensing approval by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and confirmation by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
While a repository application has yet to be submitted to the CNSC, the commission said it has provided regulatory guidance to the NWMO, along with preproject design reviews of geological repository concepts. The CNSC can only make a licensing decision after completing an environmental assessment.
The NWMO has also agreed to an indigenous-led regulatory assessment and approval process that will be developed and implemented by Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. According to the NWMO, the tribal nation will design the process to ensure that potential impacts of the project are assessed against its Anishinaabe Values, and that conditions to mitigate any impacts are designed by Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and complied with by the NWMO.
The NWMO estimates that regulatory approval of the repository will be completed by 2032. Once approved, the organization will commence with an estimated 10-year construction project, with operations expected to begin in the early 2040s.
The selection process: In May 2010, the NWMO launched its site selection process for a willing and informed community to host a geological repository for the long-term management of Canada’s spent fuel.
Twenty-two communities initially expressed interest in the project, and the NWMO gradually narrowed its focus through increasingly intensive technical studies and engagement with those communities and the tribal nations in whose traditional territories the potential sites were located.
By 2020, two sites remained in contention—one in the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation–Ignace area and one in the Saugeen Ojibway Nation–South Bruce area in southeastern Ontario. In October, the municipality of South Bruce narrowly voted in favor of being a willing host, while the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) wasn’t expected to make a decision until 2025.
In a statement following the NWMO’s announcement choosing the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation–Ignace site, the joint chiefs and councils of SON said, “The decision is an historic victory for SON, its people, and our rights of self-determination. Our people and leaders have fought for decades for the right of free, prior, and informed consent to be recognized and upheld with respect to the disposal of radioactive waste.”
Chief Clayton Wetelainen of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation said, “We acknowledge the NWMO site selection decision, and we look forward to continuing to work closely as this project enters the regulatory assessment phase. WLON views our role as the potential host for Canada’s used nuclear fuel as one of the most important responsibilities of our time. We cannot ignore this challenge and allow it to become a burden for future generations.”
