17 Jan (NucNet): Canada’s government is investing 1.28 billion Canadian dollars (1.26 billion US dollars, 990 million euro) over 10 years to clean up low-level radioactive waste in the Port Hope area of Ontario.
The initiative is an agreement between the government and local communities to find a solution for the historic low-level radioactive waste within the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington.
The clean-up will deal with about 1.7 million cubic metres of historic waste resulting from radium and uranium refining operations of the former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear and its private sector predecessors beginning in the 1930s. The uranium was used for research into nuclear weapons.
The company held a monopoly on uranium prospecting and development in Canada until 1948. It was dismantled in 1988 and its assets merged with the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation to become Cameco Corporation.
The initiative is composed of two major projects, each involving the construction of a new long-term waste management facility and supporting infrastructure.
The government said the waste does not pose an “immediate unacceptable risk” to human health and the environment.
However, the current in situ management systems are not suitable as a long-term solution, due in part to the waste site’s proximity to the Lake Ontario shoreline, which is eroding.
