Canada’s nuclear waste storage facility could be built in N.B.

New Brunswick’s geology may make it suitable as a storage facility for all of Canada’s used uranium, according to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.

‘It’s our understanding that most of the geology of the four provinces that we are visiting is potentially suitable for a used fuel repository.’— Jo-Ann Facella, Nuclear Waste Management Organization

The organization is visiting several New Brunswick cities this week as it seeks public opinion on choosing a Canadian site for storing spent uranium from the country’s nuclear reactors.

Jo-Ann Facella, the director of social research for the nuclear waste organization, said new research is showing that a nuclear storage site could be located outside of a mountainous area, such as the Canadian shield.

“We see that there has been a great deal of work and a great deal of promise in both granitic rock and sedimentary formations,” Facella said.

“For instance, in France, they are looking in clay formations. So I think we’ve expanded our understanding beyond the granitic rock to understand that there are other rock formations that are potentially suitable for this kind of project.

New Brunswick is one of four nuclear provinces and currently stores its own used uranium at the Point Lepreau Generating Station. Ontario and Quebec also rely on nuclear reactors to generate power, while Saskatchewan is also being looked at as a possible location for the site because it mines uranium.

Organization proposes underground storage facility

Storing the used fuel at the Point Lepreau reactor isn’t considered a long-term solution.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has come up with a proposal to create an underground facility that would allow all of Canada’s nuclear waste to be safely stored for a long period of time.

The idea would also make it possible to retrieve the used material in the future.

The organization is not looking at sites yet, but it wants to discuss the options with provinces that could host such a facility.

“It’s our understanding that most of the geology of the four provinces that we are visiting is potentially suitable for a used fuel repository,” Facella said.

“However, detailed investigation would be required at a site in order to confirm that a site could effectively, safely and securely contain and isolate used nuclear fuel from the environment and its people.”

Nuclear waste project could hit $24-billion

According to the organization, the province that would be home to the Canadian nuclear storage site would receive a $16-billion to $24-billion investment.

Energy Minister Jack Keir said he’s interested in what people in the province have to say about the idea of bringing the nuclear waste facility to New Brunswick.

“I’m looking forward to hearing what New Brunswickers are going to tell them. This process is about how to select a site, not selecting a site,.” he said.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization was in Fredericton on Wednesday and was to be in Saint John and Edmundston on Thursday.

Source: CBC News