A Canadian federal cleanup program on Tuesday began moving 450,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste away from the shoreline of Lake Ontario.
Roughly 35 truckloads of waste were moved on the first day from an existing storage facility to the new Port Granby Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility, an engineered above-ground mound roughly 700 meters from the lake. Ultimately, about 25,000 truckloads will make the short trip, according to Bill Daly, spokesman for the Port Hope Area Initiative.
Excavation and transport of the waste is expected to take about three years, with the new site filled and capped off by 2021, Daly said. The entire project is expected to cost $283 million (CAN), which encompasses $90 million for the new facility and waste excavation and $20 million for roadway upgrades, among other expenses.
The low-level waste and marginally contaminated soil is the byproduct of radium and uranium refining operations in nearby Port Hope by Eldorado Gold Mine Ltd. and successor companies. The soil, which includes contaminants such as radium-226 and uranium, was placed in the shore-area facility in what is now the municipality of Clarington from 1955 to 1988.
The Port Granby Project is part of the broader Port Hope Area Initiative, which also involves cleanup and long-term storage of 1.2 million cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste now stored at multiple locations in the municipality of Port Hope. Construction of the engineered above-ground mound at Port Hope is scheduled for completion late next year, after which waste transport can begin in 2018, Daly said.
The full price tag for cleanup and construction of the initiative’s two projects is $1.28 billion (CAN).
The final phase of the project will be an extended period of maintenance and monitoring of the new storage facilities, which are designed to last for hundreds of years.
