Canada's Policy for the Management of Used Fuel: The Perspective of the Advisory Council to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization

Abstract

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is approaching its objective of securing a site for the deep geological repository for used fuel by 2023 as it engages the remaining communities showing interest as potential hosts, those in neighbouring areas and those along possible transportation routes from the current storage sites. At the same time, its engineering and scientific advances in the technologies of nuclear waste management and used fuel transportation are attracting international recognition. Apart from fuel arising from experimental reactors, all the existing used fuel to be managed by the NWMO is from Canadian CANDU reactors. Now, however, there is a growing interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which would generate used fuel that is different from standard CANDU bundles. Moreover, some SMRs would need to reprocess used fuel to sustain their cycle. As the NWMO continues its activities, its Advisory Council ponders these issues and makes recommendations accordingly.