STEPHEN RICCIO
CHALK RIVER Sept. 16, 2020
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) hosted quarterly webinars on the progress of the proposed Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) in Chalk River and the status of the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) closure in Rolphton on Sept. 16.
Near Surface Disposal Facility
Sandra Faught, manager of regulatory affairs at the NSDF, was the presenter for the first webinar, and she went into detail providing specific information on the location and nature of the planned low-level waste containment mound.
According to Fought, CNL looked at 15 different sites around Chalk River’s nuclear plant to find the appropriate location for the new site, deciding that a location on East Mattawa Road would be best after excluding options that were in close proximity to flood plains and those that impacted the status of endangered species in the area.
Positioned 10 km from the Chalk River water tower and 1.2 km from the Ottawa River, the mound would be invisible to the village and the river due to its location beneath a ridge. Invisibility is a priority for the site’s location, Faught said.
She assured the public that the mound would be out of reach were the river to flood. She explained that the Ottawa River is 115 metres above sea level, and 123 m above it at maximum flooding levels. The low point of the mound would be 150 m above sea level while most of it would be 193 m above.
The mound will be constructed using bedrock that will be blasted from the surrounding area, and the leachate that is taken from the waste will be pumped uphill to a waste water treatment plant where it will have to meet effluent targets in order to process the discharge into Perch Lake.
Perch Lake is connected to the river via Perch Creek, but Faught said that the 7-12 years of transit time it would take the discharge to reach the river would allow staff to set up “mitigation measures.”
One member of the public asked Faught what could be done if the pumps that were sending leachate uphill failed. She said that there are backup generators in place to maintain the usage of the pumps, and she added that the containment mound could safely store the liquid if need be.
The site’s location was also chosen to accommodate the concerns around the endangered bats and Blanding’s turtles. Sixteen bat boxes have been installed outside of the NSDF boundary and a tunnel system was created to allow the turtles to pass through the culverts on-site.
Ninety per cent of the waste that will be stored in the NSDF is already in various Chalk River waste sites, making the CNL land the best option for the new site, Faught said. The other 10 per cent of waste would be from Whiteshell Laboratories, in Manitoba, as well as commercial sources.
Nuclear Power Demonstration closure
Graham Porter, safety analyst for the NPD disposal project, was the speaker for much of the webinar on the closure process for the old Rolphton reactor.
Porter explained that CNL is currently addressing concerns from the public as they prepare to submit their final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) later this year. A decision on the project should be made by late 2021.
The disposal of the reactor, which has been decommissioned since 1987, is part of the federal government’s mission to reduce liabilities, and its goal is to contain and isolate the radioactive waste within it so as to protect the public.
Porter provided a breakdown of the seven barriers that will exist to contain the contents of the reactor that will sit tens of metres below ground. Each barrier would provide different levels of protection so that if one barrier fails, others would still maintain safety.
The second barrier, called the reactor vault, will have heavy concrete walls that are at least 2.1 m thick. Meanwhile the fourth layer, reinforced grout, would keep the inner structure from collapsing with a thickness of 1.2 m.
The five layers closest to the reactor would be closed off by a concrete cap and engineered cover, the sixth cover. It is designed to keep surface water away from the facility, and it will also have increased resistance to the impact of various weather events.
The seventh barrier is being labelled as institutional controls.
This includes passive measures such as fences and active measures such as people patrolling and environmental monitoring of the site.
Porter assured the public that the chimney swifts, a bird that has been commonly discussed as a potential orphan from the facility’s closure, will have its home preserved as the chimney on-site will be left in place.
A Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission hearing will take place on the future of the project in the summer of 2021 in Ottawa. In late 2021, before the final decision is made, there will be a second hearing near Rolphton.
