RWOS 1 tile hole removal (Bruce nuclear site, Ontario) and Point Lepreau waste retrieval project (Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, New Brunswick). Canada. Annex I

Ontario Power Generation owns 20 CANDU nuclear units, ranging in size from 500 MW(e) to 900 MW(e). Operational intermediate level waste (ILW) from these reactors is stored at a centralized waste management facility located on the Bruce reactor site. Two waste storage facilities are located on the site: RWOS 1 (Radioactive Waste Operations Site No. 1), which operated from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and consists of a series of in-ground engineered concrete storage structures such as trenches with a total capacity of approximately 1000 m3, and the WWMF (Western Waste Management Facility), which has operated since the mid-1970s and consists of a waste treatment building with an incinerator and a medium force compactor for low level waste (LLW) and a series of in-ground and above ground engineered storage structures. The WWMF currently stores approximately 60 000 m3 of waste. The current technology of choice for storage of ILW at the WWMF is in in-ground, steel lined storage structures called IC-18s (in-ground container, 18 m3) or in above ground engineered concrete warehouse type buildings known as low level storage buildings, with each building storing approximately 8000 m3 of packaged LLW. The old in-ground storage structures were not designed to current standards. An operational decision was made to consolidate the waste from the older facility (RWOS 1) into the newer one (WWMF) and to improve the packaging for the ILW. Point Lepreau is a single unit CANDU heavy water power reactor rated at 600 MW(e). It has an on-site LILW storage site consisting of five above grade engineered concrete bunkers. The total waste storage capacity is approximately 1500 m3. The waste production rate at the nuclear power plant is currently 60-100 m3 per year. The existing storage facilities were approaching full capacity. In order to delay the construction of additional storage facilities, it was decided to recover space in the existing facilities through a campaign of sorting, reprocessing and free release