2018 is looking to be a busy year for Ontario Power Generation's waste management operations.
Vice President of Nuclear Waste Management Lise Morton says they have plans for either the design or construction of eight buildings at the Western Waste Management Facility on the Bruce Power site.
She says five buildings are planned to store low-or-intermediate level nuclear waste, an additional two buildings will be constructed for dry storage of used nuclear fuel from the Bruce Power reactors, as well as a waste processing building.
She says the processing building will help divert some waste from permanent storage on the site.
"A building in which our low-level waste specifically, is sorted through so that we look for opportunities for either diversion of some of that waste, decontamination of some of that waste and some further processing," says Morton. "So ultimately, we're trying to reduce our environmental footprint."
Morton says the additional development at the Western Waste Management Facility is not as a result of delays in gaining approval for the planned deep geologic repository on the site, which is proposed to store low-and-intermediate level nuclear waste nearly 700-metres below the surface.
She says they remain committed to the DGR project, including fulfilling the latest request from federal environment minister Catherine McKenna, who asked OPG to update its cumulative effects projections to include impacts on local First Nations communities.
Morton says they are also continuing positive dialogue with Saugeen Ojibway Nation, maintaining their commitment to only proceed with First Nations approval.
"We believe that that engagement is going very well, we remain committed to Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as well committed in a 2013 letter from our president that we will not build the DGR without their support," says Morton. "So we continue working with them and respecting the community's timeline and their process, and working with them through that process."
Morton says OPG does not expect to have an answer from Saugeen Ojibway Nation on the approval process for at least a year.