Nuclear Waste Management Organization begins site selection process for 2nd deep geological repository

The Canadian government has yet to decide whether it would allow recycling spent nuclear fuel in the country, as the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announces it will be engaging with the public to choose a site for the nation's second deep geological repository.

The nuclear energy organization has launched a two-year public engagement process — which will focus on both technical safety and community willingness — to refine the site selection strategy. The formal site selection process is expected to begin around 2028.

Akira Tokuhiro, a nuclear engineering professor at Ontario Tech University, said the announcement reflects strategic foresight, but he said Canada is still focused on permanent disposal, unlike other countries who are pursuing a different approach — reprocessing and reusing spent nuclear fuel. 

"One thing that I learned on my visit to the French site in 2013, is used fuel or nuclear waste or the spent fuel has to be reusable or retrievable," he said.

"They have the technical means today to reprocess that fuel and put it back in the reactor and to extract more energy."

Finland is one of the first countries to license a permanent repository with the option of retrieval. France goes further, reprocessing its spent fuel to extract more energy, a practice rarely discussed in Canada despite being technically feasible.

"Canada certainly has the technical capability. It doesn't mean that it has the facilities, but it has the capability and the know-how and the smart people to recycle that or reuse that spent fuel," said Tokuhiro. 

"Even today, Canada is choosing not to make that commitment."

While reprocessing is more expensive up front, he said, it's arguably more climate-friendly. But Canada, like many nations, has embraced a "once-through" cycle: mine uranium, use it once, and store the waste indefinitely.

The reason Canada hasn't followed France's lead, Tokuhiro said, comes down to economics.

"That is overall cheaper than it is to recycle. This is the same problem as plastic," he said.

Dave Novog, professor, engineering physics at McMaster University, said the current Canadian model has "proved pretty attractive" because it means Canada does not rely on anyone else in the world for its fuel or for reprocessing technology. 

"I think that's been a good decision so far when it comes to fuel recycling and the sort of advanced reactors that are needed to do that," Novog told CBC Thunder Bay. 

"Those reactors, at least in my opinion, are in their infancy and it would be a huge risk for us to sort of say those reactors will eventually come and save our waste problem."