Goal of new recycling facility to reduce radioactive waste

With an ambitious goal to greatly reduce the amount of nuclear waste in Ontario, the ribbon was cut on the Western Clean Energy Sorting and Recycling Facility near Kincardine, Ont.

“We understand people’s concerns around nuclear waste. Our ability to reduce the amount of nuclear waste that ultimately needs to be permanently disposed of is very important,” said Jason Van Wart, President and CEO of Laurentis Energy Partners, a partner in the new nuclear waste recycling facility.

50 years of nuclear energy production has produced warehouses full of low and intermediate level nuclear waste, and over three million used nuclear fuel bundles, all of it radioactive.

The new recycling facility, located near the Bruce Nuclear Station, is focusing on reducing the volume of Ontario’s low level waste, the least radioactive waste, such as like coveralls, mops, brooms and hand tools once used inside Ontario’s nuclear plants.

So far, so good, according to the facility’s founders.

“We’re finding that 60 to 70 per cent of that waste can actually be segregated and incinerated, and that reduces the volumes down 95 per cent. We’re able to, in most cases, reduce the amount of waste that required to be in permanent disposal by 50 to 60 per cent,” said Van Wart.

Representatives from Laurentis Energy Partners, Ontario Power Generation, the Municipality of Kincardine, and Energy Solutions Canada cut the ribbon to open the Western Clean Energy Sorting and Recycling Facility near Kincardine, Ont. on Oct. 20, 2023. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

This is important as Ontario’s nuclear industry embarks on aggressive growth to meet an increasing need for carbon-free electricity in Ontario that’s expected to double or triple before 2050, according to Ontario Power Generation, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Commercial Management, Chris Ginther.

“We do an extraordinarily good job of managing the waste. I don’t think we do an extraordinarily good job of communicating that, and it’s critically important to people understanding and supporting nuclear generation and expansion, as a green decarbonizing strategy,” said Ginther.

It’s not just new low level nuclear waste produced in Ontario that will end up being sorted there, it’s the more than 100,000 cubic metres already stored on the Bruce Power site, where a large portion of Ontario’s nuclear waste is currently being stored.

The goal is to reduce the amount of low level waste in half over the next decade.

“We’ll work our way through that over the next five or six years. This facility can process between 7,500 and 10,000 cubic metres of waste. So, we’ll work our way through that stored waste with the goal of reducing it,” said Van Wart.

The Western Clean Energy Sorting and Recycling Facility near Kincardine, Ont. aims to reduce the amount of low-level nuclear waste that’s required to stored permanently. By 2033, the goal is to reduce amount of low level nuclear waste in storage by 50 per cent. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

The facility has been open since August, and cost between $10 and $12 million to build. Approximately 30 people work at the new sorting and recycling facility.

“The goal here is to minimize the effects of production. To reduce the by-products of nuclear energy, so it has less of an impact on the environment,” explained Kincardine Mayor Ken Craig, who said he’s excited about the opening of the new nuclear waste facility in his municipality.

There is no permanent storage solution in Canada or Ontario for nuclear waste.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has two communities interested in storing Canada’s over three million used nuclear fuel bundles in an underground storage facility, and just released a report outlining plans to dispose of Canada’s low level nuclear waste in multiple near surface buildings, while finding a host site for an underground facility to house the country’s intermediate level, and non-fuel, high level nuclear waste.