Nuclear
power production
began in the 1970's, before the government or the nuclear industry had
any safe means of storing or disposing of the highly radioactive wastes.
-
in 1977 a
three-month three-man
federal "commission" recommended burying nuclear waste in the Canadian
Shield of northern Ontario
-
in 1988
the federal government
referred the "concept" of burying nuclear waste to a ten person
environmental
assessment panel
-
in 1998
the environmental assessment
panel concluded that burying nuclear waste was not acceptable to the
Canadian
public, and recommended that an independent agency be established to do
future research into the long term management of nuclear fuel waste
-
in 2002
the federal government
passed the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act which put the
nuclear industry in charge of researching nuclear waste
management. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization was created by
Ontario Power Generation, Hydro Quebec and New Brunswick Power.
|
The
first step is a nuclear phaseout.
The Nuclear
Waste Management
Organization says that energy policy is beyond their mandate, but the
problem
of nuclear waste is unsolvable as long as the waste continues to be
produced.
At the end of 2004, there were 1.9 million fuel bundles or 45,000
metric
tonnes of nuclear fuel waste. Without an early phaseout, that amount
will
double. If new reactors are ever built, the volume will rise even
higher.
Conservation
and
alternative energy sources can and must replace nuclear power.
Conservation
and
alternative energy sources are cheaper, cleaner and more reliable.
|
In
November 2005 the Nuclear
Waste Management Organization recommended something it called "Adaptive
Phased Management" for the future management of nuclear waste, saying
it combined all three of the federal
government's "options" in a 300-year phased approach moving from
storage
at nuclear plants, to centralized storage, and finally to deep rock
disposal.
In the first phase of the NWMO plan, the waste will remain at nuclear
plants
for 30 years while a centralized site is selected. In the second
30-year phase
of the NWMO plan,an underground repository will be constructed. During
construction, the wastes will either
remain at the nuclear plants pending completion of a site research and
construction of a deep geological repository at the site, or the waste
will be moved while research is still underway, and placed in storage -
possibly in a shallow burial site - at the same location. After the
repository is constructed, the wastes will be placed deep below the
surface in a series of underground caverns. The repository may
or may not be closed after the following 240 years. |
