Engineered facilities for Canada's nuclear fuel waste management program

The Canadian nuclear fuel waste management program has the objective to ensure that there will be no significant effects on man or the environment from nuclear fuel wastes at any time. The program encompasses the development of technologies for interim storage and transportation of irradiated fuel, immobilization of fuel wastes and the permanent disposal of immobilized fuel wastes. It is a many-faceted and multi-disciplined undertaking, involving Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Ontario Hydro, and many other organizations and specialists from both the public and private sectors. Engineered facilities are an integral part of the Canadian waste management program. At present, the need is for experimental installations. Often, these simply provide space for experimental staff and their experiments, along with all required services, equipment and test rigs. At other times, the design and construction of the facilities themselves form part of the experimental program. This paper describes two experimental facilities which W.L. Wardrop and Associates Limited has designed for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited as part of the waste management program: the immobilized fuel test facility and the underground research laboratory