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Nuclear Energy and Radioactive Waste Management in Canada

13 Feb 2020

This waste accounts for about 95% of the radioactivity of all radioactive waste.29 A period of about one million years is required for the spent fuel to return to the level of radioactivity of natural uranium.30 At the end of its useful life, this waste is stored in cooling pools and then isolated in dry storage containers pending final disposal in deep geological repositories, which are “deep, st [...] Under the Act, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is the independent federal agency responsible for the regulation, licensing and oversight of nuclear activities and facilities in Canada, including radioactive waste.37 Second, the Nuclear Fuel Waste Act38 provides the federal government with a framework for making decisions on the management of nuclear fuel waste in Canada. [...] Under this Act, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was created in 2002 to develop and implement the long-term management plan for nuclear waste.39 As a producer and user of nuclear energy, Canada is bound by the international conventions to which it is a party and that aim to regulate the nuclear sector. [...] For instance, the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management is a legally binding international instrument on radioactive waste.40 Under this convention, Canada is required to undergo periodic peer review of its national spent fuel and radioactive waste management program.41 The last evaluation took place in 2018.42 This international [...] In 2016, OPG was responsible for 4% of the country’s low-level radioactive waste and 36% of its intermediate-level radioactive waste.59 Natural Resources Canada expects that the amount of radioactive waste managed by OPG will increase in the coming years as the Bruce, Darlington and Pickering nuclear reactors are decommissioned.60 In order to permanently dispose of its low- and intermediate-level
environment energy water science and technology natural resources chemicals energy technology geology nuclear power physics radioactivity uranium nuclear policy nuclear waste power generation canadian nuclear safety commission forms of energy atomic energy of canada limited chalk river laboratories deep geological repository cnsc nwmo deep geologic repository opg low-level waste intermediate-level waste nuclear accident and incident high-level radioactive waste management
Pages
23
Published in
Ottawa, ON, CA

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