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NWMO prepares drilling sites north of Teeswater for DGR study

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The Nuclear Waste Management Organization has begun to prepare two sites along Concession Road 8 north of Teeswater where they plan to drill boreholes next year as part of their deep geological repository (DGR) site evaluation.

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The NWMO has now secured more than 1,500 acres of land in the South Bruce area where they are proposing to build an underground facility to store Canada’s used nuclear fuel.

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The first borehole is set to be drilled in the spring and construction of the first drill pad and access to the site is currently underway, according to a news release.

“This drilling schedule will allow time to continue engagement with local municipal and Indigenous communities on field activities, and to undertake preparatory work in advance of drilling,” said Geoff Crann, site services manager at the NWMO, in the news release.

The NWMO said it is also undertaking, or has already completed, an environmental due diligence walkover, a survey of the features of the surface of the land, an archeological survey, cultural verification and a predrilling private drinking water well survey.

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Using a truck-mounted or skid-mounted rotary drill rig the NWMO will drill down into the earth to retrieve and study cylinder-shaped rock samples.

A wide range of testing will be performed on the core samples, and in the borehole, to investigate various geoscientific properties of the rock and advance understanding of the geology in the area.

Trailers will be deployed and used at the site as field offices, equipment storage and as a small field lab for on-site geological logging, testing and preserving of the rock core and water samples.

An NWMO spokesperson said drilling and downhole testing are expected to take approximately nine months. The drill core and water samples will then be sent to laboratories for analysis.

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The NWMO is also planning to install micro-seismic monitoring stations across the area (to monitor for seismic activity, such as low-magnitude earthquakes), dig shallow groundwater monitoring wells to further study water in the area and conduct geophysical studies at its South Bruce site in 2021.

“We’re still in the planning phase for the micro-seismic monitoring stations and the shallow wells. The number and location of those stations as wells are still to be determined,” said Becky Smith, NWMO regional communications manager, in an email.

“Our technical studies, such as the analysis of the rock core obtained during drilling, are not only following international best practices from a science perspective, but our work also places priority on minimizing our impact on people and the environment,” said Sarah Hirschorn, director of geoscience at the NWMO in a press release.

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The South Bruce location is one of two remaining preferred DGR sites identified by the NWMO, with the other in the Ignace area northwest of Lake Superior. The preferred site is expected to be announced by 2023.

The NWMO began borehole drilling at its site west of the Township of Ignace in 2017.

The ultimate aim of the project is to create a long-term storage solution for spent fuel rods, currently stored above ground at nuclear sites.

The DGR proposal would include a $23-billion buried storage vault for used fuel rods and a testing centre for technologies needed for the project.

In total, the project requires 250 acres for facilities on the surface. The estimated footprint of the underground storage area is about two kilometres by three kilometres (1,480 acres), but would be dependent on a number of factors, such as rock characteristics and features and the amount of used fuel to be stored. It would be located about 500 metres below the surface, depending on the rock characteristics at the site.

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With the environmental regulatory approval process expected to take a decade, an NWMO timeline has construction beginning in 2033 and taking 10 years, with operation starting in 2043.

The NWMO recognizes and states on its website “ultimately, the project can only proceed with the involvement of the community, First Nation and Métis communities in the area and surrounding communities.”

The groups Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste and Protect South Bruce – No DGR are pushing back against the proposed South Bruce site.

They had a growing e-mail list of supporters and several requests for anti-DGR signs in October.

In November, Mainstreet Research published the results of an automated telephone survey of 284 adults living in South Bruce, sponsored by Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste.

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The results of that survey showed 64 per cent of respondents would vote against the proposed South Bruce DGR site. Sixteen per cent indicated they would back the site while 20 per cent were unsure.

A smaller survey in September conducted by South Bruce indicated 74 per cent of residents wanted a referendum to vote on the project.

So far there has been no commitment to such a vote. A municipal election is set to take place in 2022.

In January, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation held a community vote which turned down a separate DGR proposal by OPG for a low-and-intermediate-level nuclear waste storage facility near the Bruce Power nuclear site in Kincardine.

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