Disposing of Canada's used fuel

The Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program is assessing the permanent disposal of used nuclear fuel in a waste vault located 500 to 1,000 m deep in the Precambrian granitic rock of the Canadian Shield. The specific objectives of the program are to develop and demonstrate the technology to site, design, build, and operate a disposal facility in a way that creates no, or negligible, burden on future generations. In addition, the program must develop a methodology to evaluate the performance of the disposal system against safety criteria and demonstrate that sites are likely to exist in the Canadian Shield that satisfy regulatory criteria. These criteria are very stringent. As in other national high-level waste management programs, the Canadian concept for the permanent disposal of nuclear fuel wastes employs a multiple barrier system for isolating contaminants from the environment. The current phase of the work is generic in nature and is not site specific. Research and development (R and D) has advanced to the point where the generic concept will be evaluated under the Canadian environmental assessment review process, which involves public hearings and independent scientific review