Shifting strategies and precarious progress: Nuclear waste management in Canada

Canada has a lengthy history of trying to find a path for dealing with radioactive spent fuel and nuclear waste from its nuclear reactors. In the last decade, it has taken major strides towards this goal by evolving a process through which a site for a geological repository to sequester nuclear waste is to be selected. The Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is in the early stages of the process of finding a community that is willing to host such a repository. Differences between the broad principles underlying siting and the processes for actually selecting the site have emerged as the NWMO proceeds with engaging local governments and specific communities. These differences and other conflicts, especially over new nuclear reactor construction, might pose hurdles in the path of successfully setting up a repository.