South Bruce out of the running as NWMO selects Ignace for used nuclear fuel DGR
November 28, 2024
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has announced the Town of Ignace and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation will host the site for Canada’s Deep Geological Repository (DGR) for used nuclear fuel.
This means the Municipality of South Bruce is no longer in the running.
In a press release, issued Thursday, the NWMO stated that Canadians and Indigenous peoples have been clear that it is essential to take responsibility now, in this generation, to safely manage Canada’s used nuclear fuel for the long-term. This announcement is an important milestone in delivering on that promise to not leave it as a burden for future generations to manage.
“This is an historic moment,” said Laurie Swami, NWMO president and chief executive officer (CEO). “This project will solve an environmental issue and supports Canada’s climate-change goals. And this decision was driven by a consent-based siting process led by Canadians and Indigenous peoples. This is what making history looks like.”
There is international scientific consensus that a DGR is the safest way to manage used nuclear fuel over the long-term, and Canada is among the leading countries on this solution.
The NWMO launched its community-driven, consent-based, site -election process in 2010. It included clear commitments that Canada’s plan for used nuclear fuel could only move forward in an area with a site that meets rigorous safety standards and that has informed and willing hosts. The project also needs to be implemented in a way that advances community well-being as defined by the host communities.
The people of the selected host community have demonstrated their willingness to move forward in this process. Earlier this month, the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation confirmed its willingness, following a decision-making process that was open to all its members. The Township of Ignace completed a decision-making process with its residents in July, which also confirmed willingness.
This important decision for Canada was possible because of the communities’ leadership and active engagement over a decade of learning, as well as considering the future of their communities. The safety of the site was also established through rigorous site assessment and technical studies.
“We have learned so much from all the communities that took part in this process over the years,” said Lise Morton, NWMO vice-president of site selection. “By challenging us, they helped the NWMO grow and become a better organization, and they directly shaped this project.”
The project will drive a wide range of benefits for the host community, the region and Canada, as a whole, over the 175-year timeline of the project. These include new jobs and investments in community well-being, driven by the priorities that the communities, themselves, defined.
As the project now advances into the regulatory decision-making process, Canada will take another step forward on this long-term management solution for its used nuclear fuel, which will protect people and the environment, including water, while supporting its goals around energy security and climate change.
Laurie Swami (left), president and CEO of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), checks out the proposed DGR design, with Chris Boyle, vice-president and chief engineer with the NWMO
QUICK FACTS:
- Canadians and Indigenous peoples have relied on clean nuclear energy to power their homes, businesses and cities for more than 60 years.
- A necessary byproduct of generating nuclear energy is used nuclear fuel. While Canada’s used nuclear fuel is safely managed in interim storage at reactor and laboratory sites, this approach is not appropriate over the long-term.
- The DGR design uses a series of engineered and natural barriers that work together to contain and isolate used nuclear fuel.
- The NWMO considered only areas where at least one community expressed interest in learning more about the project and exploring the potential to host it.
- Twenty-two communities did just that, and the NWMO gradually narrowed its focus through increasingly intensive technical studies and engagement with those communities, their neighbours and the First Nations in whose traditional territories the potential sites were located.
- Since 2020, activities have been centred in the areas of two remaining sites — one in the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area and one in the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area, both in Ontario.
- After extensive technical study and community engagement, the NWMO selected a site that is safe and where the host community has demonstrated that it understands the project and supports making it part of the community.
- This process was also guided by the NWMO’s commitment to reconciliation, based on co-creating a shared future, built on rights, equity and well-being for Indigenous peoples.
- The NWMO has agreed to an Indigenous-led RAAP (Regulatory Assessment and Approval Process), a sovereign regulatory process that will be developed and implemented by the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation will design the process to ensure that potential impacts of the project are assessed against its Anishinaabe Values, and that conditions to mitigate any impacts are designed by the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and complied with by the NWMO. This approach aligns with the NWMO’s reconciliation commitments, and the NWMO looks forward to working with the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation as it implements its sovereign process.
- In addition to the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation’s RAAP, the project will enter the rigorous regulatory decision-making process that will ensure that the NWMO’s understanding of the safety of the repository is independently confirmed, by both the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and through the Government of Canada’s impact assessment process.
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