Nuclear fuel waste management and disposal concept: Report. Federal environmental assessment review process
The Canadian concept for disposing CANDU reactor waste or high-level nuclear wastes from reprocessing involves underground disposal in sealed containers emplaced in buffer-filled and sealed vaults 500--1,000 meters below ground, in plutonic rock of the Canadian Shield. This document presents the report of a panel whose mandate was to review this concept (rather than a specific disposal project at a specific site) along with a broad range of related policy issues, and to conduct that review in five provinces (including reviews with First Nations groups). It first outlines the review process and then describes the nature of the problem of nuclear waste management. It then presents an overview of the concept being reviewed, its implementation stages, performance assessment analyses performed on the concept, and implications of a facility based on that concept (health, environmental, social, transportation, economic). The fourth section examines the criteria by which the safety and acceptability of the concept should be evaluated. This is followed by a safety and acceptability evaluation from both technical and social perspectives. Section six proposes future steps for building and determining acceptability of the concept, including an Aboriginal participation process, creation of a Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Agency, and a public participation process. The final section discusses some issues outside the panel`s mandate, such as energy policy and renewable energy sources. Appendices include a chronology of panel activities, a review of radiation hazards, comparison between nuclear waste management and the management of other wastes, a review of other countries` approaches to long-term management of nuclear fuel wastes, and details of a siting process proposed by the panel.
- Research Organization:
- Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management and Disposal Concept Environmental Assessment Panel, Hull, Quebec (Canada); Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (Canada)
- OSTI ID:
- 649555
- Report Number(s):
- MIC--98-05002/XAB; SSC-EN--106-30/1-1998E
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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