Nov 20, 2008 - 01:29 PM

By Keith Gilligan

DURHAM -- While a federal agency continues to work on finding a site to permanently store nuclear waste, Ontario Power Generation is moving forward with a storage solution at the Pickering facility.

A building is just about complete at Pickering where about 470 dry storage containers (DSC) will be placed.

Harland Wake, the director of used fuel storage for OPG, told the Pickering Community Advisory Council the company has approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to begin moving the 80-tonne containers in 2009.

Mr. Wake's department handles the waste from the Pickering, Darlington and Bruce sites.

Moving the containers will be done from May to October, he said, adding it will take three years to move all the containers at Pickering into the new building.

When spent fuel rods are removed from a reactor, they are placed in water for 10 years to cool down, and then placed in a DSC.

This year, 51 DSCs will be loaded at Pickering, with 44 completed by the end of October. At Darlington, 45 DSCs are being loaded and it's the first year of operations.

Each year, OPG files about 230 DSCs, he said. "We're by far the biggest dry storage operation in the world."

Storing the fuel rods on site is an interim plan while the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) continues to find a final storage site.

The NWMO is recommending what's called an adaptive phased management (APM) system to store waste. APM calls for spent fuel to remain on the site it's produced until a final place is selected. The final storage site will be a deep geological repository.

"There is no urgency to move fuel, but the current system is considered interim. There is no firm timetable to implement adaptive phased management or to finding a site, " Michael Krizanc of the NWMO said to the CAC.

A waste storage facility near Kincardine is for low and medium fuel, and excludes high-level waste, such as spent fuel, he said.

The earliest date a facility could be open is 2035. "That's the most conservative date we can use for budgeting purposes. We will have identified a willing host by then."

The site selection process for the final site hasn't begun, Mr. Krizanc said, adding a "willing host" will be sought.

"We intend to have an informed and willing host. If not, we have to go back out. There are experiences of informed and willing host communities," Mr. Krizanc said, pointing to Sweden and Finland.

"There are vast, large swaths of Canada" that could be used, he said, noting the Canadian Shield would be an ideal area. "It doesn't need to be a specific type of geology."

"We're not ruling anything out at this time," he said, although he noted the site would be in one of the four provinces with nuclear facilities -- Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

Using an old mine has been ruled out as a storage facility, he said. "There are fissures in the rock from blasting. This needs precision drilling."

Also, new mining techniques and economic forces could mean an abandoned mine might be reopened, he said. "We want virgin rock."

The facility would only handle waste created in Canada and wouldn't import it from other countries, Mr. Krizanc said.

"Canada has a responsibility to look after its own fuel and not import any. It's so far away from the minds of what Canadians think is correct," he said. "There's no contemplation of accepting international waste."