Français
This graphic report on nuclear waste in Canada was originally published in French in the magazine “Nouveau Projet”, in issue 05 (spring-summer 2014), by Atelier10. The exclusive rights having expired, we are now publishing it under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license, which allows sharing and adaptation of the work. Special thanks to Tom Robinson for his translation into English and his wise proofreading.
In the years following the publication of our graphic report, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) process has continued. In 2020, only two sites are still in the running to host all of Canada's nuclear fuel waste: "Ignace and surrounding area" and "South Bruce". The selection process is ongoing, and the NWMO will only move forward in a community where all surrounding communities within a territory agree to work together in its establishment.
Although there is no way to dispose of the waste properly, compare to burying them and trying to forget them forever, various solutions promoting nuclear energy regularly come to the fore. In 2018, the focus of attention for the Government of Canada and some provinces was on Small Modular Reactor (SMR) projects. Once again, the focus is on the specific advantages of this technology, but without indicating how to safely store the waste produced for the next 100,000 years. So this issue is still relevant today, and may be for millennia to come….
We therefore hope, through the online publication of this graphic report under a permissive licence, to contribute to the awareness of nuclear waste management, both in Canada and around the world. This is, after all, the longest term project ever undertaken by humanity.
Miguel Tremblay and Julien Castanié
September 2020