Making Strides on the Port Hope Area Initiative: Canada’s Largest Low-Level Radioactive Waste Clean-up Project

Abstract

The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) is the largest low-level radioactive waste clean-up project in Canadian history. Approved in 2001 and focused on project definition in its early years, this federally-sponsored project entered a new transition phase in 2008. The transition phase activities include detailed design, construction site preparation, environmental monitoring, and final licensing. In addition, efforts to engage and inform the highly interested project stakeholders will continue. This paper sets out the objective of the PHAI and provides a brief history, a summary of the recent project developments and insight into the upcoming environmental remediation and safe storage phase.