A Documentary Account of Burying Nuclear Waste in Canada
by William Leiss
Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press eBook and Print Edition (Paperback): available now
Deep Disposal | McGill-Queen’s University Press (mqup.ca)
What should be done with Canada’s 3.2 million nuclear fuel waste bundles, currently stored on-site at nuclear plants?
Canada is one of many countries around the world that use nuclear reactors to generate electrical power, in part as of now to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet this energy produces hazardous, long-lived waste that emits dangerous radioactivity for tens of thousands of years.
Nuclear waste, stored temporarily for decades, must be safely disposed so it will not pose a serious threat to human health and the environment. This means being placed in locations deep underground in granite, sedimentary rock, or clay. Canada’s ideal location is somewhere on the Canadian Shield, the 2.5-billion-year-old crystalline rock that undergirds much of the country. Beginning in 2010 some twenty-two communities, most in Ontario, volunteered to host the repository. In Deep Disposal William Leiss explains the challenges that have arisen in the evaluation of potential sites over the last decade.
High-level nuclear waste is the most hazardous byproduct of an energy source that is incredibly useful and increasingly in demand. Finding a suitable place to store it permanently is an urgent policy issue facing our country. Deep Disposal reveals the nature of this issue and how we might resolve it.
Additional material:
Item No. 1: Petition to the House of Commons
Petition e-4852 – Petitions (ourcommons.ca) [Now including a response from the Minister of Natural resources and energy]
Item No. 2: NWMO Errors in Deep Disposal
Item No. 3: NWMO Failures in Risk Communication
Item No. 4: NWMO Deep Disposal Fact Check