Nuclear waste sorting and recycling facility under construction

Construction is underway on a new facility near Kincardine, Ont. where Ontario’s low and intermediate level nuclear waste will be sorted and sifted through, to see if the current 100,000 cubic metres can be reduced in size and volume.

“We believe in a facility like this, we can sort about 6,000 cubic metres a year. So, over the next decade we can really get that volume down, maybe even by half,” says Fred Kuntz, with Ontario Power Generation.

Kuntz says years of research have shown that the amount of workers garments, gloves, cleaning supplies, mops and rags used at their Ontario nuclear facilities — which makes up most of their low level nuclear waste — can be shrunk through a combination of compaction and incineration.

The sorting that happens at the new Western Clean Energy Sorting and Recycling facility, once it’s operational by early 2023, will be all the more important if plans to build small modular nuclear reactors across Canada take off, and more nuclear waste is created.

“Part of making that plan sustainable for the long run for Canada’s energy future, is to have a facility like this, that can sort the low level materials and really put the truth into nuclear as clean energy,” says Kuntz.

Ontario’s low and intermediate level nuclear waste is currently stored in above ground and near ground buildings and containers at the Bruce Power nuclear site, near Kincardine. Plans for a permanent underground facility to house that waste was vetoed by the Saugeen Ojibway Nation in January 2020.

“There’s a review underway at the federal level of an integrated strategy for all of Canada, so we’re awaiting the outcome of that, and then we’ll proceed with some sort of plan for a permanent facility for low level materials,” says Kuntz.

In a separate project, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization will decide next year between South Bruce and Ignace as potential sites to build an underground facility to bury Canada’s high level nuclear waste.

The sorting and recycling facility for Ontario’s low and intermediate level waste, will be built by year’s end and operational should by early 2023, Kuntz says.