More than two years after it provided tens of millions of dollars to a company seeking to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, the Canadian government has yet to decide whether the practice should be allowed on Canadian soil.
Reprocessing involves extracting uranium and plutonium from irradiated fuel to make new fuel. In March, 2021, the government provided Moltex Energy with $50.5-million to support development of a reprocessing facility (known as Waste To Stable Salt, or WATSS) and a reactor that would burn fuel it produced. Moltex plans to construct both at New Brunswick Power’s Point Lepreau station, on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy.
Currently reprocessing is not conducted in Canada. With the notable exception of Japan, it’s done almost exclusively by countries that have nuclear weapons programs. It’s controversial: Critics warn reprocessing increases proliferation risks, and that Canada would set a bad precedent by pursuing it. Proponents say reprocessing could simultaneously reduce nuclear waste stockpiles and destroy weapons-usable material while at the same time generating electricity.
Government officials, industry representatives and anti-proliferation activists have said the government must establish a policy explicitly allowing reprocessing before it can proceed. But in a statement to The Globe and Mail, representatives of the natural resources department, or NRCan, said that while the government was receptive to exploring “the science, benefits and risks” associated with the practice, it did not have any policy for or against it.
“We can confirm that NRCan is not undertaking efforts to establish a policy on used nuclear fuel reprocessing,” wrote spokesperson Bruce Blackie.
The government released a policy on radioactive waste this year that was almost entirely silent on reprocessing, stating only that it “would require consideration of all relevant factors by the federal government prior to its deployment, including ensuring the health, safety and security of people in Canada, and compliance with non-proliferation safeguards and international treaties.”
Rumina Velshi, outgoing president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, stated late last year that reprocessing would “require a policy decision from the federal government.” In an interview this summer, she told The Globe public conversations about reprocessing should begin years ahead of Moltex bringing an application before the CNSC, which regulates nuclear activities in Canada.
“Reprocessing is going to be a huge, huge deal for this country,” she said. “We need to be clear: If this is not an area that this country is interested in pursuing, put a stop to it. And if there is a possibility, then let’s at least start that conversation.”
Ms. Velshi added that concerns raised at a recent licensing hearing for Point Lepreau station dwelled more on Moltex’s reprocessing plans than the facility as it exists today.
“That’s where the concern is,” she said. “So clearly, there’s an appetite. … We have to find an avenue for people to debate and have a dialogue on it.”
Documents released this summer under the Access to Information Act to Susan O’Donnell, an activist on nuclear issues and researcher at the University of New Brunswick, and provided to The Globe, show that the CANDU Owners Group (which represents utilities such as New Brunswick Power that operate Canadian-designed reactors) drafted a reprocessing policy and distributed it among government and industry officials.
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The documents also reveal that Moltex warned the government last year the company would have difficulty raising money until the government clarified that reprocessing will be allowed.
“When Moltex assessed which country would be most suitable for developing its technology, Canada was a top choice, because it did not have any policies opposing reprocessing,” wrote Rory O’Sullivan, the company’s chief executive officer, in a March, 2022, letter to NRCan officials.
“Moltex would likely not have come to Canada if a reprocessing policy had been mandated at the time.”
In an interview with The Globe on Monday, Mr. O’Sullivan disputed the notion that a policy is needed.
“All of the framework to do reprocessing is available within existing legislation,” he said. “If the government was against the concept of reprocessing, they would not have given tax credits to incentivize recycling” in its latest federal budget, he added.
In a letter sent on Friday to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a group of 12 nuclear experts said they’d learned through the documents provided to Ms. O’Donnell that a policy-making process on reprocessing had indeed commenced. While “gratified” to learn this, the authors wrote, they expressed concern that the government “is actually funding a project to increase the production and accumulation of weapons-usable plutonium for civil purposes around the world.” They offered to brief policy makers on the dangers.
“It does seem like it’s been dominated, so far, by the Ministry of Natural Resources and by the by the industry folks,” said one of the letter’s authors, Frank von Hippel, professor emeritus of public and international affairs at Princeton University.
Also on Monday, seven First Nations communities of the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council announced they’d signed agreements with Moltex through which they’d receive $2-million in equity in the company.
The tribal council said it had “conducted thorough due diligence” and had determined that Moltex’s “technologies and values harmonized with Indigenous teachings of honouring and respecting Earth and its resources.”
“Anything that’s going to reduce the amount of nuclear waste is something that should be supported,” said Terry Richardson, Chief of Pabineau First Nation.