Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will submit additional information to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) on alternate sites for a proposed deep geologic repository for nuclear waste by May 26.
OPG's Fred Kuntz says they have spent a decade working toward the approval of a Deep Geologic Repository to store low and medium level nuclear waste at Bruce Power in Kincardine.
And he says it doesn't take long to study alternate locations because the required research doesn't include actual site studies, just the environment affects of alternate locations.
"And so that was done on a regional basis. And that was a methodology approved by the CEAA. The Bruce site is an actual site and core samples have been drilled there. And so it's a different degree of study," explains Kuntz.
OPG will submit additional information about the alternate location summaries, and about the cumulative effect of the possibility of two nuclear waste repositories located near one another.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, meantime, is studying a number of locations for a second repository which would store used nuclear fuel, and several of those sites would be near the planned OPG nuclear waste storage repository.
OPG says once they receive Environmental Assessment approval, they would apply for a construction licence. That would be followed by further design work and site preparation. The DGR would not be in service until 2026 at the earliest.