Nuclear Waste: Safe by What Standard?
An overview of how nuclear facilities are regulated.
Wawa Community Centre
Tuesday, November 22,7 pm
A presentation by Theresa McClenaghan, Executive Director and Senior Counsel, Canadian Environmental Law Association on how nuclear facilities are regulated. The presentation and following discussion will address how nuclear projects are reviewed, how standards are set, and how regulations relate to the protection of human health and the environment.
NUCLEAR WASTE
What do you need to know?
An overview presentation about nuclear waste, its hazards and its history in Canada, followed by a roundtable discussion.
Wednesday, November 23, 7pm
Nipigon Community Centre
138 Wadsworth Drive, Nipigon
Thursday, November 24, 7pm
Room M2020, Sault College, Sault Ste. Marie
2nd Floor, Main entrance off Northern Avenue
Welcome to our information web site about nuclear waste. This site has been created to provide ordinary people with information about an extra-ordinary challenge: the long term management of the highly radioactive waste that is created as a byproduct of using nuclear power to generate electricity.
In Canada - as in several other countries that use nuclear power - the nuclear industry is committed to the idea of burying the nuclear fuel waste in a rock formation in a yet-to-be-identified location. In 2002 the federal government gave the nuclear industry permission to begin a search for a suitable site and a willing community, and in May 2010 the Nuclear Waste Management Organization formally launched their search for just such a community.
As of October 2011, nine communities - three in northern Saskatchewn and six in northern Ontario - are allowing themselves to be studied as possible end points for all of Canada's high level nuclear waste.
Please visit this site often as we add more information and updates.
What is nuclear waste?
Nuclear wastes are the radioactive by-products of developing and using nuclear technologies, including nuclear power reactors and nuclear weapons. Nuclear fuel waste is also called "high level" waste, and is the most radioactive of the waste products generated by nuclear power production.
What is the nuclear industry looking for?
The nuclear industry - under the banner of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization - is looking for a community willing to become the "host" to all of Canada's nuclear fuel waste - approximately 50,000 tonnes to date. The NWMO plan is to place the waste deep underground.
