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 made an agency controlled by the
nuclear waste owners responsible for research options for nuclear waste
management
The Nuclear Waste Management
Organization (NWMO) was created by Ontario Power Generation, Hydro Quebec
and New Brunswick Power, the generators and owners of nuclear fuel waste.
The NWMO was directed by the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act to review three "options"
for the long term management of nuclear fuel waste (continued storage at
the reactor site, centralized storage, or geological disposal) and report
with a recommended option by November 15, 2005.
|
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 May 2005 the Nuclear
Waste Management Organization released its draft recommendation, which
it calls "Adaptive Phased Management". It combines 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. The site will have
rock formations allowing shallow underground storage, an underground research
laboratory, and a deep geological repository. In the second 30-year phase
of the NWMO plan, either a shallow underground facility will be built at
the identified site and waste transportation will begin, or waste will
remain at the nuclear plants pending completion of a site research facility
and construction of a deep geological repository at the site. In either
case, the waste will be moved to the selected site. The repository may
or may not be closed after the following 240 years.
The Nuclear Waste Management
Organizations "fourth option" combines the worst of all three!
-
the option encourages continued
production of nuclear waste
-
it assumes that the waste will
eventually be buried, letting the industry off the hook for long term management
-
communities will be put at risk
by the transport of nuclear waste, potentially very long distances
-
a site will be selected before
research is completed
-
it will be hundreds of years
before the community that is made "host" to the disposal facility will
know what kind of a facility they are being made "host" to
|
