Canada’s nuclear establishment  continues to pursue its goal to achieve the permanent underground burial of irradiated nuclear fuel waste.  The industry dominated Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in its draft work plan for the period 2010 - 2014, expects to find a “willing community” to volunteer to host the first underground nuclear waste dump in Canada.

 

However, elsewhere, there are now some early signs that the permanent burial option may be losing some of its lustre.

 

For example, in the U.S., former Senator. Pete Domenici, a longtime advocate of nuclear power, recently stated “...that it is time to give up attempts to create a permanent disposal site for the nation's nuclear fuel waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.”   “Yucca Mountain is political. Everybody knows that." he said in an interview after his speech, "The truth of the matter is, the world has passed by the idea of putting spent fuel rods as hot as they come out of the reactor underground in perpetuity."

 

In Scotland, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “The consultation supports our commitment to near-surface, near-site facilities, allowing waste to be monitorable and retrievable with minimal need for transportation over long distances.

 

“Having an out-of-sight, out-of-mind policy is losing support.”

 

Hopefully, Canada, and other countries still pursuing the permanent burial option will be flexible enough to reconsider their approaches and their options.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Straws in the wind

 

Volume One -

1980-1984-

 

Originally published in paperback as "Getting

The Shaft, The Radioactive Waste Controversy in Manitoba."

Volume Two -

update: 1984-1988-

 

The growing prospect of nuclear waste dumps on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border intensifies the controversy

Volume Three -

update:1988-1998

 

Federal Environmental Panel concludes that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s permanent underground nuclear waste burial concept lacks public acceptability.

Volume Four -

update:1998-2008

 

Mixed Oxide plutonium transport and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and

nuclear waste issue grinds on

Nuclear Waste Saga

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