CNL marks completion of Port Granby project
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has announced the official completion of a project that sees the safe excavation, transfer and storage of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of low-level radioactive waste.
The Port Granby Project involved the construction of a massive storage mound and the installation of multi-layered base liner and cover systems to safely isolate radioactive waste excavated from the shoreline of Lake Ontario from the environment.
Dedicated systems within the mound and around the perimeter of the facility were also installed to allow maintenance and monitoring of the facility’s safety and performance for years into the future.
Work on the project began in 2016.
CNL hosted local residents, First Nations representatives, and community groups at a celebration to mark the completion of the project on May 16. Guests were given an up-close look at the restored lakefront site and the drumlin-shaped storage mound, located about 700 metres away from the lake, which blends with the local landscape.
Over 1.3 million tonnes of waste excavated from the Lake Ontario shoreline in Southeast Clarington is now safely stored in the engineered, aboveground storage mound that was capped and closed in fall 2021. The project was part of the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI), which CNL is implementing on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.
“The completion of the Port Granby Project represents a major milestone for the community of Clarington and fulfills the Government of Canada’s commitment to safely address the long-term management of this waste,” said Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. “In order to move forward and establish a clean energy future here in Canada, we must first address the legacies of the past. That was the mission of the Port Granby project, and I want to congratulate everyone who helped bring it to a safe and successful conclusion.”
Alderville First Nation Chief Dave Mowat and Anishinabek Nation Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief James Marsden offered messages on the traditional and treaty territory of the Mississauga Nation where the Port Granby work was completed.
“CNL is pleased to incorporate environmental stewardship and sustainability into every decision we make as an organization, as we develop solutions that stand the test of time. These were our objectives with the Port Granby Project,” said President and CEO Joe McBrearty.
The PHAI is the federal government’s commitment to respond to community-requested solutions for the cleanup and local, long-term, safe management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington. The waste resulted from radium and uranium refining operations of the former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear and its private sector predecessors, which operated from the 1930s to 1988.
The initiative is one of the most complex environmental remediation projects in Canada and one of several projects being undertaken by CNL, including the design and construction of a similar facility, known as the Near Surface Disposal Facility, which is proposed for the Chalk River Laboratories site.