Canadian Nuclear Labs, owned by the SNC Lavalin consortium, is intervening in review of a CNSC “reg doc” on radioactive waste, asking CNSC to make it ok for them to dispose of Intermediate level waste in the Chalk River Mound. They say they have current plans to do this, even though they made a great to do in the fall of 2017 announcing they would not put “intermediate level” waste in the Chalk River Mound.

This would go against common sense and international safety standards. CNSC, as Canada’s captured nuclear regulator, will be sorely tempted to give CNL what it is asking for. Let’s keep an eye on how this unfolds. Here is some more info on this:

CNSC has posted responses to its request for comments on REGDOC-2.11.1, Volume I, Waste Management: Management of Radioactive Waste – see http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/…/re…/history/regdoc2-11-1-v1.cfm.

The comment period ended on June 30, 2019. But now there is an opportunity to respond to the posted comments.

Here is an extract from comments by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (posted on-line at http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/…/Comments-REGDOC-2-11-1-v1-…) specifically regarding Section 6.1, Waste Classification:

Industry Issue

The 4th bullet is a potentially misleading or biasing statement. There are current plans to place ILW in aboveground mounds. (emphasis added)

Suggested Change

Amend 4th bullet to read, .“Due to its long-lived radionuclides, ILW generally may require (rather than requires) a higher level of containment and isolation than can be provided in near surface repositories.