UPDATE: OPG’s Proposed Deep Geological Repository Project near Lake Huron rejected by CEAA

In 2013, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) proposed to construct, operate, and ultimately decommission and abandon a deep geological repository (DGR) for low- and intermediatelevel radioactive waste. The repository would accommodate waste from commercial nuclear reactors that are owned or operated by OPG, and are located at the Bruce, Pickering, and Darlington sites. Back in August 2013, Sierra Club Canada sponsored the submission of a report written by the Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS) that addressed selected issues related to the DGR, in the issue category “malfunctions, accidents, and malevolent acts”, with a focus on malevolent acts. OPG has prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the DGR that considers, among other issues, the potential for malevolent acts. This report also showed that the EIS has not fully assessed the potential for malevolent acts associated with the DGR, and the impacts of such acts, and offered recommendations for correcting that deficiency.In May 2015, an environmental review panel approved the repository but the federal government has since delayed its decision. In February 2016, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna had asked OPG for information on, among other things, the feasibility of burying the low or moderately radioactive waste elsewhere. In response, OPG submitted a report that insisted the Bruce nuclear plant near Kincardine, Ont., was the best location for its proposed deep geologic repository.  Most recently in April 2017, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) criticized OPG’s report as inadequate and failed to provide information the government had requested, asking it to try again. This pushes back the decision by the Federal Environment minister until sometime next year. (Read the full news report on CTV news here: Feds criticize vague report on burying nuclear-waste near Lake Huron)Read an analysis of the severity of the issue on thewhig’s Op-ed, written by Erika Simpson (Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Western University): A lot more to be answered