The Safe Closure of the NPD Reactor

Abstract

The Government of Canada as part of their duty to reduce nuclear legacy liabilities has issued a contract to close the Nuclear Power Demonstration (NPD) site in Rolphton, Ontario. Currently in Canada there are no suitable repositories for the disposal of radioactive waste generated during the decommissioning of redundant nuclear reactors. The only options are storage with surveillance or decommissioning of the facility with interim storage of the waste at a dedicated waste store.A review of the characteristics of the NPD reactor and its location has identified that a viable option for disposal would be In-Situ Decommissioning (ISD) with grout used to immobilise and stabilise the wastes in the below grade structure. This paper will describe the proposed ISD approach to decommission the NPD reactor. It will explain how the decision to undertake ISD was reached, including a summary of the safety case for a first of kind in Canada waste disposal system.