Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Dealing With Radioactive Waste
The accumulating radioactive waste is another unresolved issue. Canada has stockpiled 2 million fuel bundles (about 45,000 metric tons), most of it in Ontario. Current nuclear reactors will produce 3.6 million bundles during the course of their average operative life of 40 years. They would fill up ten hockey rinks from the ice surface to the top of the boards. Some of this spent fuel will still be around to poison the environment hundreds of thousands of years from now.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was set up in 2002 to recommend a disposal method. Its shareholders are the nuclear industry itself, Ontario Power Generation, Hydro Quebec and NB Power. Critics pointed out that this was a basic flaw. Should a group with a vested interest in continuing the production of such waste be in charge of deciding what to do with it?
"The NWMO must examine the whole cycle of nuclear waste, from production to disposal," says John Bennett, Sierra Club Senior Policy Advisor. "To not do so is looking at the problem without attacking the cause, and allows the nuclear industry to continue to push for the construction of uneconomic, unsustainable nuclear power plants."
In November 2005, the NWMO recommended a process called "Adaptive Phased Management," which supports long-term flexibility in waste management storage and allows for ongoing involvement of citizens in the decision-making process. The estimated cost of disposing of the Canadian waste is $24 billion. (This is before the traditional cost over-runs of the nuclear industry). In the end, the waste is to be stored in a deep underground facility in such a way that it would be monitored and remain retrievable over time. This would allow for new technologies that could, one day in the future, use and/or neutralize this waste.
The estimated cost of disposing of spent Canadian nuclear fuel is $24 billion.