The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in Canada said Friday that just two communities in Ontario remain in contention to host an underground disposal facility for spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear power plants.
The locations are the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario and the municipality of South Bruce in southern Ontario. In a press release, the NWMO said it had reached agreements with landowners in South Bruce for sufficient access to their properties to conduct additional technical evaluations on the use of the area for the geologic repository.
The southern Ontario township of Huron-Kinloss is now out of the running, NWMO said.
“We were heartened by the interest shown from landowners in both Huron-Kinloss and South Bruce,” NWMO spokesman Bradley Hammond said by email Friday. “Discussions evolved to the point where in South Bruce we have sufficient land and confidence to proceed with technical site evaluations at a potential repository site in this area.”
Borehole drilling and some environmental monitoring are expected to begin in the area within a matter of months, according to the NWMO release. The organization remains on track to select the location for the disposal facility by 2023, Hammond stated.
The nonprofit Nuclear Waste Management Organization was formed by Canadian nuclear utilities to select the site for the repository, then build and operate it. Site selection began in 2010 with 22 potential locations.
The project in total is expected to cost $24 billion CAD ($18.2 billion U.S.). It will bury a projected 5.2 million bundles of radioactive used fuel 500 meters underground. Construction of the repository is expected to last a decade, followed by 40 years to transport and emplace the spent fuel.
