A Toast to Radioactive Water

The glass of water you had an hour ago was contaminated, with radioactive, nuclear waste.

This scenario may potentially be a reality in the near future for Canadian citizens should Catherine McKenna, the Environmental Minister of Canada, passes the one-billion-dollar project that Ontario Power Generation wishes to conduct.

This organisation (the OPG) wants to bury hundreds of thousands of radioactive, nuclear waste in a six hundred eighty-meter-deep hole. This is called a deep geological repository (DGR).

HOLD UP — let’s backtrack for a moment. It seems a nuclear waste management refresher is in order.

Let’s begin by briefly reviewing the production of nuclear energy. This energy source is created from nuclear fission, the splitting of an atom through neutron collision. This occurs inside nuclear reactors which initiate these contained reactions. Connected to the reactor core and pump, the fission heat transforms water inside a heat exchanger to steam. This steam then activates a turbine and a generator.

You may be wondering where the waste comes from. After fission occurs, the remainder created is fission product, a high-level waste. It is unstable and can release energy over the course of a thousand years.

When it first comes out of the reactor, standing near it unshielded would deliver a radioactive dose in seconds and death by acute radiational sickness within days. Intermediate-level waste includes used filters or steel parts from reactors such as fission and control rods. Low-level waste classifies contaminated tools or personnel clothing.

Spent fuel is shielded for a few years so the radiation decays to a degree where it can be safely stored in concrete cases. This occurs in spent-fuel pools. The waste is then converted to ash and sealed. The need for long-term nuclear waste management produced the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump.

Now we can get back to it.

This project suggests creating a vault to bury low and intermediate nuclear waste for 1 million years, 1 kilometer away from Lake Huron. The deep geological repository would be deeper than the CN Tower is tall at 2,230ft. Scientists have modelled the future and state that the DGR could handle an ice age. The rock to be used is low-permeability limestone. The main parties involved include Ontario Power Generation, who own the three nuclear plants in Ontario and the government. The hosting city is Kincardine, Ontario, which is home to 11,000 people and known as a cottage country area.

In support of this idea, the OPG states that the site is and will be stable and resilient for a long time. As per Allison Macfarlane, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, our largest issue as a species is climate change. Nuclear energy helps by not producing carbon. The protection of hundreds of metres of rock in a hard-access area with nearly no exposure to surface phenomena, greatly reduces the likelihood of hazards in comparison to a surface facility.

Burying radioactive waste near the largest freshwater bodies on earth that provide drinking water to over 40 million people, seems foolish. In fact, there has been a 100% fail rate amongst the three DGRs in the world. Moreover, the waste should be retrievable, so future generations can keep tabs. Lastly, the OPG states that the underground dump “is not likely to result in any significant effects to human health or the environment”. But is “not likely” good enough?”

Since 2005, the OPG has been suggesting to bury by Lake Huron and in May 2015, the federal environmental assessment panel approved the OPG’s project, but due to the election, the Conservatives were unable to make a final decision. On August 21, 2017 Catherine McKenna, the environmental minister, issued a request for information. If Kincardine is chosen, construction would begin in 2018; currently, 230 resolutions have passed in objection.

It would take thousands of years for the waste to decay to a non-toxic level, in the meantime, it would remain under rocks that geologists say have not moved, in tens of millions of years.

The issue with this, you see, is that the intermediate, radioactive waste could leak into Lake Huron. This lake lies only twelve hundred meters away from the proposed dumping site. The lake is part of the source of drinking water for over forty million people and the largest freshwater network in the world; the Great Lakes Basin. You may be thinking, well golly, that’s an awfully dangerous venture. Yes. Yes, it is — and you are not alone in thinking this.

A group called, ‘Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump’, sent McKenna a petition with over ninety thousand signatures. A letter from thirty-two members of Congress was sent to Trudeau and McKenna to reject the idea also.

Nevertheless, OPG states the rock is stable and would act as a hermetic closure to prevent leakage. Per thestar.com, the ‘international consensus’ from a 2015 Environment Report, stated that

“burying the waste in a DGR is preferable to storing it in a repository, as OPG has done for decades. This is because it would be less vulnerable to natural and human-caused disasters”.

Such a risk would affect the health and lifestyle of forty million people.

Debbie Dingell, an American Representative, states,

“We’ve got to find a location that doesn’t impact large populations of people. A mountain that is in an isolated place is a better place than water that is 20 percent of the freshwater in the world.”

Applause for Ms. Dingell.

“We will never know if there has been a leak until it’s too late,” says Beverly Fernandez, from the opposition.

Theresa McClenaghan of the Canadian Environmental Law Association says,

“There isn’t a magic bullet. It’s not like we can put it out of sight and we’ve solved the problem.”

What’s happening with the project now? The decision is currently in the hands of the Canadian Indigenous population.

Seeing as the project would break ground on Saugeen Ojibway territory, the OPG has said that the project will only be green-lighted if the Saugeen Ojibway approve.

Randall Kahgee, an advisory to the Ojibway on nuclear issues says

“Our people don’t see it as a simple project. We see that as a forever project, because that’s how long it will be here. And if it’s allowed to proceed, it will forever become part of the cosmology of our people, so how can we not be part of that conversation?…[It is] very scary when you consider the gravity of what you’re dealing with.”

The Saugeen Ojibway Nation may have their answer to the OPG by the end of this year - and the project it’s federal approval in 2020.

This is where my inquiry comes in — I began to wonder what might be done as an alternative solution, and if the dump happened, how might the effects be remedied? Big questions, I know.

1. The Sun would be able to devour the waste efficiently, however rockets are unreliable as atmospheric spreading upon lift-off could occur.
2. Recycling nuclear waste has also been proposed, as it is 90% Uranium, it has 90% usable fuel that can be chemically processed and reused for advanced fast reactors. AFR’s reprocess through extracting plutonium and fissionable uranium from spent fuel.
3. Switching from Uranium/Plutonium to Uranium/ Thorium based fuel has been suggested, as it would be recyclable without the creation of plutonium. We can advance long-term containment of nuclear waste by developing a chemical principle that instills engineering receptor molecules to extract radioactive elements from nuclear waste. This is similar to technology used to remove chemical pollutants from water, which could also be used to convert seawater to freshwater. However, it is extremely difficult, like building a lock for a key.

What would we do if the dump took place and leaked? A major risk for this project to begin with is of bursting waste drums, as with all nuclear waste management. But on top of this, the leak would be underground and near water. Building an underground barrier by injecting chemicals into the ground for solidification, has been a precaution tried before to contain contaminated water. But adding chemicals seems equal to the situation being remedied.

Would you bury poison beside your well?