Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has announced that work is completed on a key radioactive-waste management project outside Toronto.

The organization announced that final work had been completed on the Port Granby Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility. Contractors capped and closed the engineered, above-ground mound on the site last month.

The final layers of topsoil and grass were placed on the storage mound in September, following the final transfer of low-level radioactive waste excavated from the Lake Ontario shoreline in Southeast Clarington.

The Port Granby facility is one of several environmental remediation projects being undertaken by CNL, including the design and construction of a similar facility proposed for the Chalk River Laboratories site, known as the Near Surface Disposal Facility, which is currently undergoing an environmental assessment.

“CNL is cleaning up and safely managing this historic waste on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited,” said President and CEO Joe McBrearty. “In pursuit of that goal, CNL is applying proven engineering containment methods that have been used internationally to tackle challenging environmental issues like the cleanup in Port Granby.”

CNL says the capping and closure of the engineered storage mound is a major milestone for the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI), which is the federal governments’ response to community-recommended solutions for the cleanup and local, long-term, safe management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington.

Capping of the Port Granby project also marks the transition to the long-term monitoring and maintenance phase of the work. Landscaping of the site is expected to be completed next summer.

"This project and the collaboration it inspired will support and strengthen other nuclear waste management initiatives – in Port Hope, across Canada and around the world," said Atomic Energy of Canada Limited president and CEO Fred Dermarkar. "It will also enable ongoing stewardship and relationship-building with Indigenous and local communities, spurring opportunities for future partnerships as we work together to build a collective vision for these lands for generations to come."

Construction of the storage mound began in 2016 and involved the installation of multi-layered base liner and cover systems to safely isolate the waste from the environment. In November 2020, CNL completed the excavation and safe transfer of historic waste from the former site on the shore of Lake Ontario.

More than 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated soil and industrial waste that had been located on the unstable site for decades were placed in the mound for safe, long-term storage. Dedicated systems within the mound and around the perimeter of the facility will allow maintenance and monitoring of the facility’s safety and performance for hundreds of years.

CNL is implementing the PHAI on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

Featured image: More than 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated soil and industrial waste has been placed in the CNL-constructed aboveground engineered mound on the Port Granby site in southeast Clarington. (Canadian Nuclear Laboratories)