Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for inviting me to speak about Ontario Power Generation's deep geological repository and our industry.
OPG has a strong tradition of generating electricity for almost 100 years. It grew out of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario and Ontario Hydro. In the first half of the 20th century, all of our assets were hydroelectric, which laid the foundations for the economic and social development of Canada.
Fossil plants followed in the fifties and the sixties as an additional source of energy to fuel a growing and thriving province. In the seventies and nineties, nuclear stations were added to that mix.
OPG owns three nuclear stations in the province, the Pickering, Darlington, and Bruce power stations, and together they produce more than half of Ontario's electricity—stable, clean, affordable, and safe energy that has helped Ontario and Canada move to a low-carbon economy. It was nuclear power that helped the province get off coal-powered electricity, significantly reducing the province's and the country's greenhouse gas emissions, and it will be this way as nuclear continues to be an integral part of our electricity mix and the decarbonization of our economy.
In October, OPG embarked on a $12.8-billion megaproject, the biggest clean energy project in the country, refurbishing the nuclear generating station, one of our most important assets.
As I mentioned earlier, Darlington generates 20% of the province's electricity and has done so since the early nineties. It needs a mid-life refurbishment, and we're spending 10 years to do just that. Once this is completed, Darlington will continue to provide to Ontario stable and cheap energy, free of greenhouse gas emissions, for 30 or more years.
As with any industrial operation, nuclear plants produce waste, and in Canada there are strict regulations around the storage and disposal of nuclear waste. Unlike gas- or coal-burning plants that send their waste up into the atmosphere, the vast majority of nuclear waste is solid. It's stored as per the rules of Canada's radioactive waste policy framework, which dictate that waste producers and owners are responsible for the funding, organization, management, and operation of disposal and other facilities required for their waste. The policy recognizes that there may be different categories for each waste category.
OPG is responsible for the interim storage and long-term management of low- and intermediate-level waste. High-level waste, as Laurie mentioned, is the responsibility of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, the NWMO, which is in the process, as you've heard, of working on a plan for the safe long-term management of used nuclear fuel.
For 40 years, the low- and intermediate-level waste produced from the three nuclear plants has been safely stored at the Bruce generating station on Lake Huron. It has been trucked there without incident, and every single piece of waste generated over 40 years is accounted for. Currently, all the waste is stored safely above ground within the secure Bruce site.
The low- and intermediate-level waste is stored in concrete storage buildings and in in-ground containers. There are approximately 100,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level waste stored there, about half of the total that would be placed into the DGR when it's done. The spent fuel is placed in dry storage containers at each of the three stations. The containers, designed by OPG, are made of reinforced concrete and carbon steel and weigh about 70 tonnes when full. Each container holds 384 fuel bundles and, to date, we've loaded 2,500 containers.
Just as we as a society are trying to deal with the carbon waste sent up in the atmosphere by fossil fuel use, we have an obligation to future generations to safely dispose of nuclear waste responsibly, where it cannot pose a threat to the public or the environment. In this vein, OPG has identified and has been working on a safe, permanent solution to manage low- and intermediate-level waste, a deep geological repository, or DGR. DGRs are recognized internationally as the best long-term solution for nuclear waste. DGRs are used safely in the United States, Finland, South Korea, and Sweden. Countries such as Germany, Switzerland, France, and Japan are among the other developed countries seeking to construct a DGR.
OPG's proposed plan would take the waste from where it's stored above ground, move it 100 metres, then 680 metres underground—lower than the CN Tower is high—and into some of the most impermeable rock on earth. The proposed site is designed to contain 200,000 cubic metres of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste.
This isn't just OPG's best guess for disposal; rather, the project and the site have been subjected to a rigorous environmental and approvals process for nearly 16 years. It's been studied and peer-reviewed by scientists from around the world. In addition, the project has been the subject of nearly a decade of scrutiny, public hearings, and input from local residents.
A federal joint review panel was established in 2012 by the Minister of the Environment and the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to study the proposal. It also agreed that it was the ideal site to permanently contain the waste, and recommended that the project be built sooner rather than later. As part of the process, OPG reached out to the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, or the SON. The site is located in traditional SON territory, and OPG has given its commitment to the SON that the DGR will not proceed to construction without the support of the SON community. The panel said the following in its report: “The Panel believes that important bridges have been built between the scientific information for this environmental assessment and the cultural and spiritual worldviews of the Aboriginal people who participated in this review.”
OPG also engages with and has the strong support of the host community, the Municipality of Kincardine, as well as neighbouring jurisdictions. Every study or review has concluded that DGR would not cause any adverse effects to the environment or Lake Huron.
Following the endorsement of the joint review panel, OPG continues to seek EA approval. The federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change has asked for three further studies, and OPG is finalizing its answers to those. OPG has committed to provide this additional information to the minister by year-end. Our results from those additional studies still show that the Bruce nuclear site remains the preferred site for the safe long-term management of low- and intermediate-level waste.
In conclusion, let me leave you with this observation from the joint review panel's report:
The proposed DGR is an important, unique, precedent-setting project. It would be the first of its kind in North America, and it is the first of its kind in the world to propose using limestone as the host rock formation. It is likely that the knowledge and experience gained through the project will assist the Canadian government in its separate Adaptive Phased Management process for the long-term management of used fuel.
Thank you. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.