A Toronto-based construction and remediation company has secured the contract to complete construction of the Port Hope Project radioactive waste disposal facility in Ontario, Canada, and then to operate the above-ground storage mound, the Port Hope Area Initiative announced Friday.
ECC/Quantum Murray is already building the facility’s first storage cell. Under contract with the Canadian National Laboratories, the firm will now construct the three other cells and manage storage during cleanup of low-level radioactive waste at Port Hope, according to a press release. Its additional responsibilities include finishing all necessary support infrastructure at the site, encompassing internal roadways for moving the waste, radiation monitoring portals for vehicles, weight scales, and a station to decontaminate all trucks exiting the facility.
“With the completion of Cell 1 scheduled this fall and the contract to operate the facility now in place, the site will be ready to receive waste, and remediation in Port Hope can begin early next year,” said Craig Hebert, general manager for the Historic Waste Program Management Office, said in the release.
Specific terms of the new contract, including its length and monetary value, were not immediately made public. The first storage cell was previously reported to cost $16 million (CAN).
The Port Hope Project is intended to clean up 1.2 million cubic meters of historic low-level radioactive waste and then keep it safe in storage for hundreds of years. It is part of the larger Port Hope Area Initiative, which also includes long-term storage of another 450,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste under the nearby Port Granby Project.
