Intermediate level waste is stored in these "in-ground" structures. A Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) near the Bruce Power nuclear plant is being proposed to store nuclear waste deep underground.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The two municipalities competing for a proposed underground radioactive waste disposal facility have selected different methods of determining whether their residents are willing hosts, marking a milestone in the site selection process.
The Municipality of South Bruce and the Township of Ignace, both in Ontario, are the two finalist locations selected by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization for a deep geological repository, or DGR, in which spent nuclear fuel would be stored more than half a kilometre underground. The NWMO plans to select its preferred site by the end of 2023, but has said the host must be informed and willing. Its short list is down from 22 communities that initially expressed interest.
South Bruce residents will vote to determine whether to accept the facility in the small Southwestern Ontario community of Teeswater, the local council declared Wednesday. No date has been set, but the referendum is to occur after the Ontario municipal elections on Oct. 24, 2022.
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The other candidate is Ignace, Ont., north of Lake Superior. Separately, this week, the township decided Ignace’s willingness will be determined by a council resolution.
The DGR has provoked intense, sometimes rancorous debate throughout South Bruce over the past decade, and particularly after the NWMO began securing land in early 2020. Proponents, including municipal officials, have emphasized the potential economic benefits. A community group called Willing To Listen argued that a referendum is “far from perfect” and could be plagued by low voter turnout. If one were held, the group urged that it be held in 2023 or later.
“We should keep the NWMO here spending their money as long as possible,” wrote member Tony Zettel in a letter to a local newspaper.
An opposition group, Protect Our Waterways, vehemently opposed the DGR in South Bruce and called for a referendum to be held next year.
A final resting place for Canada’s
spent nuclear fuel
A deep geological repository isolates radioactive, spent
nuclear fuel in underground rock chambers. The surface
facilities would be removed, and the DGR sealed,
a century or more after operations begin.
Fuel bundle
Used fuel container
500m
Bentonite
clay
1. Surface facilities
2. Main shaft
complex
Rock
3. Placement
rooms
4. Ventilation
exhaust shaft
THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: nwmo
A final resting place for Canada’s
spent nuclear fuel
A deep geological repository isolates radioactive, spent
nuclear fuel in underground rock chambers. The surface
facilities would be removed, and the DGR sealed,
a century or more after operations begin.
Fuel bundle
Used fuel container
500m
Bentonite
clay
1. Surface facilities
2. Main shaft
complex
Rock
3. Placement
rooms
4. Ventilation
exhaust shaft
THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: nwmo
A final resting place for Canada's spent nuclear fuel
A deep geological repository isolates radioactive, spent nuclear fuel in underground
rock chambers. The surface facilities would be removed, and the DGR sealed,
a century or more after operations begin.
Fuel
bundle
Used fuel
container
500m
Bentonite
clay
1. Surface facilities
2. Main shaft complex
3. Placement rooms
Rock
4. Ventilation exhaust
shaft
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: nwmo
“We’re a small community, so everybody knows everybody,” said Michelle Stein, chair of Protect Our Waterways, in an interview in July. “There’s a lot of people who are scared to say that they think this nuclear waste facility is a bad idea because they don’t want their neighbour angry at them. So a referendum would give people a safe place to put down the answer that they want.”
Ms. Stein said this week’s referendum promise is hollow “because it will ultimately be up to the next council to decide if they want to follow that decision.”
South Bruce officials said the schedule will allow enough time for the NWMO and the municipality to complete dozens of studies examining the DGR’s economic, environmental, social and safety effects. It would also allow for the negotiation of a hosting agreement, which would spell out the NWMO’s responsibilities and what benefits it would provide to the community.
Earlier this year, South Bruce hired GHD Ltd., a consulting firm, to study how the community’s willingness might be determined. Options reviewed included a referendum, opinion polls, surveys and other methods. GHD’s report, delivered to the South Bruce council last month, found “overwhelming” public support for a referendum. Its report noted, however, that some residents feared a referendum “has the potential to cause deeper divisions in the community.”
The NWMO must also persuade the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in whose traditional territory the South Bruce DGR would reside. In an August presentation, SON community engagement manager April Root-Thompson said the NWMO committed in June, 2016, “that it will not locate a repository … within our territory without the consent of our communities.”
Ontario Power Generation made a similar commitment during its efforts to construct another DGR, this one for low- and intermediate-level waste, in Kincardine, Ont. SON members voted overwhelmingly against that facility in January, 2020.
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