The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Legitimate questions surround nuclear waste storage and all deserve an answer, says a spokesperson for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. Creighton is one of 21 Canadian communities talking with the NWMO about the potential of one day hosting an underground repository to store the nation's spent nuclear fuel rods. Michael Krizanc, communication manager for NWMO, says the organization most often fields questions around transportation, the potential impact of the repository on water, and seismic events. He provided the following information on each topic: Transportation It will be necessary for the NWMO to demonstrate to Canadians and to regulators that used nuclear fuel can be transported safely and securely from the sites where it is currently stored on an interim basis to the repository site. We are confident that used fuel can be safely moved because of the track record of safe transportation of nuclear materials in Canada and internationally, the robustness of the transportation containers themselves and the regulatory oversight and the transportation management and monitoring programs that are in place. Transportation has been and continues to be the focus of significant study by the NWMO and the international nuclear waste management community. Some of this work is described in the technical report Transport of Used Nuclear Fuel _ A Summary of Canadian and International Experience which is available on the NWMO website. A video describing used nuclear fuel transportation, and including film of severe accident demonstration tests, is also posted on the NWMO website. Water It will be important for the NWMO to demonstrate that the repository will safely contain and isolate used nuclear fuel from humans and the environment essentially indefinitely. A safety case will need to be developed which outlines how the engineered barriers and the natural rock barrier at the proposed site will prevent fuel in the repository from migrating outside the repository and interacting with the surface environment. Substantial work has been done on repository design and continues both in Canada and internationally and has led to an international consensus that a deep geological repository is the preferred technology for managing used nuclear fuel over the long term. Numerous studies on the implications of water interaction with a deep geological repository are described in several of the technical reports posted on the NWMO website. Seismicity The repository will be subject to an environmental assessment and regulatory process to ensure that it can be implemented safely for humans and the environment. Any potential candidate site would be subject to a thorough site evaluation process. One of the most important components of the safety assessment process is to ensure that the repository will be resilient to a wide range of geological and climate change process, including seismicity. This would include detailed geological investigations and numerical simulations to develop a thorough understanding of past seismicity and predict the magnitude of future seismic events. A repository would not be sited in the vicinity of active faults that would have an impact on the integrity of the repository containment and isolation system. In addition to siting in a place with low earthquake risk, the repository will include features to make it robust to earthquakes. These include placing containers at a distance from fractures or faults, mechanically robust containers, and the use of self-sealing clay barriers to seal used fuel containers in the rock. It is also important to note that underground structures are more resilient to earthquakes than surface structures, especially when they are sealed in the rock without free movement.
