The Bruce Nuclear Station, located in Kincardine, is the largest nuclear station in the world. The Darlington Nuclear Station, located in Clarington, is the third largestnuclear power plant in North America.
We surveyed Kincardine and Clarington municipal election candidates about whether they support safer interim storage solutions for the high-level radioactive waste that is currently stored in conventional commercial warehouses in their municipalities. Here are the results:
Safer Interim Storage
Five Kincardine candidates and one Clarington candidate believe that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) should build above-ground, attack-resistant, reinforced concrete vaultsfor the safer interim storage of their nuclear stations’ high-level radioactive nuclear waste.
Kincardine Yes: Laura Haight, Jim David, Jeff Hegmans, Scott Wilson and Doug Kennedy.
Clarington Yes: Lloyd Rang
Full responses are posted on our website
Background Information
The total radioactivity of the nuclear wastes stored at Ontario’s nuclear stations is 700 times greater than the total radiation released to the atmosphere by the Fukushima accident in 2011.
The International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board is calling for OPG’s nuclear waste storage facilities to be “hardened” and located away from shorelines to avoid them being compromised by flooding and erosion.
According to a report prepared for OPG, the total capital cost of building above-ground, attack-resistant, reinforced concrete vaults at the Bruce, Darlington and Pickering Nuclear Stations would be approximately $1 billion. This safer interim storage solution can be fully paid for by OPG’s nuclear waste storage fund, which has a market value of $11.3 billion.
In Germany, six nuclear stations have hardened storage facilities. The concrete walls and roofs of these facilities are 1.2 to 1.3 metres thick.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is still decades away from having an operational long-term storage site for high-level nuclear waste, and its plans are opposed by many indigenous communities and organizations in the areas they are considering. This means that a safer interimstorage solution is needed for Ontario’s radioactive nuclear waste.
For more information, please read our report: A Safer Interim Storage Solution for Ontario’s Nuclear Wastes.
Ask your candidates for Council what they think about safer storage of Ontario’s high level nuclear fuel waste.