Deep Geologic Repository

Province: Ontario

City/Region: Kincardine

Image Credit: Ontario Power Generation

NR

Project Rank

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Project Type: Waste Management

Industry Sector: Other

Project Amount: $1 billion

Date of Completion: NA

Funding Source: Public

Provincial Funding: $1 billion

LEED Status: Certified

Previous Rankings

202051
201955
201853
201747
201649
201549
201438

About The Project

OPG is building this 680-metre-deep underground storage facility to house 200,000 cubic metres of low and intermediate level radioactive waste. Low-level waste consists of material that may be contaminated through the normal course of operations at a nuclear facility such as paper towels, mops, and used tools. While low-level waste does not require specialized shielding for workers, the intermediate waste will require special handling and can consist of items such as irradiated core components, ion exchange resins and various filters. Used fuel, considered high-level waste, is not to be stored in the Deep Geologic Repository (DGR).

The repository will safely isolate and contain the waste undergroud ensuring protection of the water and the environment for many thousands of years. It will be buried 680 metres—deeper than the CN Tower is tall—in stable rock formations that are more than 450 million years old. In May 2015, an independent Federal Joint Review Panel recommended to the Federal Minister of the Environment that OPG be granted a licence to construct the DGR.

In August of 2017, OPG was asked for further information about the project from Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna, including an update on impacts to the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. Negotiations with both parties to allow the project to move forward are still ongoing.

Financing Detail: N/A

Project Owner: Ontario Power Generation

Project/Construction Manager: Nuclear Waste Management Organization

Engineer: Hatch; Wood Group (consulting)

Other Key Players: AECOM (env. consulting); Geofirma Engineering (geoscientific characterization); G.L. Tiley & Associates; Golder (env. impact statement); Tetra Tech; WorleyParsons; WSP (technical review/support); Morrison Hershfield (fire protection analysis); AGAT Labs

Legal: Torys (owner)

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