Setting Priorities for Decommissioning and Remediation Activities under The Federal Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program at AECL Sites

Abstract

The objective of the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP) is to safely and cost-effectively reduce the federal legacy liabilities at AECL sites, using sound legacy management and environmental principles in the best interest of Canadians. The legacy liabilities consist of shutdown nuclear and industrial facilities, buried and stored wastes and contaminated lands at Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), Whiteshell Laboratories (WL), and other AECL nuclear facilities in Canada. Although all of the legacy liabilities must be dealt with eventually they cannot all be addressed at once, especially with continuous operations at one site. Therefore the periodic ranking of the associated risks is used in deciding which liabilities to focus on in the short term. This has been achieved through the implementation of a prioritization process, which is the subject of this paper.