SON to vote on Low and Intermediate waste DGR

Do we let future generations deal with ‘our’ waste?

This Friday, January 31st, members of Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) will submit their final votes on whether to support Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Deep Geologic Repository (DGR).

In 2013, OPG committed that it would not build the DGR at the Bruce Power site in the Municipality of Kincardine without SON support.

With polls closing on Friday at 8:00 p.m., the answer should be in within hours afterward.

Nuclear has been here and, will be here, for a long time and those who handle it are well trained and competent as they have been for some 50 years. In the region, in particular, we have all enjoyed the economic spin-offs and clean emissions-free electricity at a reasonable price.

At some point however, we have to deal with the waste if we care for our children’s children and into the future.  To suggest that the detailed studies that have been conducted at the Bruce site be conducted at other locations is simply suggesting that we do nothing with it for the next 20 to 30 years.  That’s the amount of time it will take and then what we are really saying is let the future generations deal with ‘our’ waste.

To make it clear once again, this OPG DGR is ONLY for low-and-intermediate level nuclear waste and only from OPG-owned stations.

It has nothing to do with used fuel.  It has nothing to do with the high-level waste DGR which is a proposed facility by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) with two locations now being considered in South Bruce and Ignace, Ontario.

They are two completely separate projects which some people cannot seem to understand.

The proposed DGR for low and intermediate waste (L&IW) would be located at the Bruce Nuclear site in Tiverton.  Presently, the waste is stored above ground or in shallow in-ground containers at the surface at the Western Waste Management Facility (WWMF) at the Bruce site, with much of it being incinerated ash. The LLW that is incinerated amounts to approximately 50 to 70 per cent of the total by volume of the original 95 percent and when reduced to ash, it is 1/60th of its original volume.  It still contains radioactivity but in a smaller, concentrated volume.
We need to understand that not all low level waste needs to be, or can be, incinerated. So, where should this waste go?  Where should the incinerated ash go?

Low-and-intermediate waste (L&IW) consists of materials that MAY have been irradiated.

Items such as rags, wipes, clothing, tools, metal, plastics, lumber, building supplies, generators, etc.

It is processed every day and everything is logged and carefully handled.

 

The present system of storage however, has ALWAYS been considered as an interim solution.

For more information on OPG’s facility, visit www.opgdgr.com