Canada's national policy on the long term management of nuclear fuel waste

Nuclear energy is an important part of Canada's diversified energy mix. There are 22 CANDU reactors in Canada located in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Like any other industry, nuclear fuel cycle operations produce some waste, and for this paper, we will focus on nuclear fuel waste, i.e., the irradiated fuel taken out of nuclear reactors at the end of their useful life. Canada has no plans to reprocess and recycle this fuel, so current plans are based on direct long term management of the waste fuel. Although nuclear fuel waste is currently in safe storage, steps are now underway to develop and proceed effectively with the implementation of more long term management solutions. A deep geological disposal concept was developed by the federal crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and Ontario Hydro, and, in October 1988, it was referred for review by a federal independent environmental assessment panel. AECL submitted the Environmental Impact Statement to the Panel in 1994. The Panel released its report with conclusions and recommendations on the acceptability of the concept in March 1998. It found that "from a technical perspective, safety of the AECL concept has been on balance adequately demonstrated for a conceptual stage of development, but from a social perspective, it is not. As it stands, the AECL concept for deep geological disposal has not been demonstrated to have broad public support. The concept in its current form does not have the required level of acceptability to be adopted as Canada's approach for managing nuclear fuel waste". Thus it was clear that Canada should increase public confidence before proceeding with any general approach on the long term management. With the Panel's recommendations in mind, and with further consultations with stakeholders, including the public, the Government of Canada developed the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act (NFW), which came into force on 15 November 2002. The NFW Act is a stand-alone piece of legislation with some 30 articles and without regulations. The Act deals essentially with social, financial and socio-economic considerations of the long term management of nuclear fuel waste. It complements the health, environment, safety and security requirements under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act. It provides for 1) the nuclear industry to set up a waste management organization to manage the full long term waste management activities and to establish trust funds to finance long term waste management responsibilities; and 2) the waste management organisation to submit for government decision long term waste management options within three years of coming into force of the NFW Act. On 24 October 2002, the nuclear industry formed the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which is now proceeding with preparing the options study. On 25 November 2002, the nuclear industry deposited initial amounts into the required trust funds. On 28 March 2003, the NWMO submitted to Government its first annual report.