Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Program to Deal with Canada's Nuclear Legacy Liabilities

Conference · Tue Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:21144155

Brown, Peter; Metcalfe, Douglas; Blanchette, Marcia ^[1]; Dolinar, George; Halpenny, Steven; Purdy, Chris; Smith, David; Kupferschmidt, William ^[2]

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1. Natural Resources Canada, 580 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E4 (Canada)
2. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River, Ontario, K0J 1J0 (Canada)

The Government of Canada nuclear legacy liabilities have resulted from 60 years of nuclear research and development (R and D) carried out on behalf of Canada by the National Research Council (1944 to 1952) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL, 1952 to present). These liabilities are largely located at AECL research sites, and consist of shutdown research buildings (including several prototype and research reactors), a wide variety of buried and stored wastes, and contaminated lands. The shutdown buildings and contaminated lands need to be safely decommissioned to meet federal regulatory requirements, and long-term solutions need to be developed and implemented for management of the wastes. More than half of the liabilities are the result of Cold War activities during the 1940's, 50's and early 60's. The remaining liabilities stem from R and D for medical isotopes and nuclear reactor technology, as well as national science programs. About 70 percent of the liabilities are located at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) in Ontario, and a further 20 percent are located at AECL's shutdown Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba. The remaining 10 percent relate largely to three shutdown prototype reactors in Ontario and Quebec, which were key to the developmental stage of Canada's CANDU reactor technology. The inventory of legacy waste includes spent fuel, high-level, intermediate-level and low-level solid and liquid radioactive waste, and wastes (largely contaminated soils) from site clean-up work across Canada. Most of the wastes are in raw, unconditioned form, and limited characterization information is available for the wastes generated in past decades. In many cases unique and potentially costly solutions will be required to recover, handle and process the wastes. In conclusion: the Government of Canada has initiated a program to deal with nuclear legacy liabilities dating back to the Cold War and the birth of nuclear technologies and medicine in Canada. The 5-year start-up phase will address immediate health, safety and environmental priorities, as well as provide the facilities, studies and plans required for subsequent phases. Over the next few years, the long-term strategy will be further developed and refined, and public consultations are planned to inform this work and decisions on the next phase of the strategy.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21144155
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LTD
BUILDINGS
CANDU TYPE REACTORS
CHALK RIVER
DECOMMISSIONING
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
INTERMEDIATE-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANITOBA
QUEBEC
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RESEARCH REACTORS
SHUTDOWN
SPENT FUELS