Assessing the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Waste Management in Electricity Generation in Canada

Abstract

Radioactive waste management is a critical consideration in the continued development of nuclear energy. To determine the most feasible and sustainable energy sources in Canada, all options for waste formation and management must be taken into account. The purpose of this paper is to compare five types of electricity generation: nuclear, gas, coal, solar, and wind, based on waste management metrics, such as the absolute volume of waste, the cost of handling one tonne of waste, the volume of waste per one GWh of electricity produced, and the cost of waste management per one GWh of electricity produced.

The disposal of waste generated during electricity production involves various methods, such as landfilling (in the case of used wind turbine blades or solar panels), atmospheric emissions (in the case of gas and coal power), or storage in designated facilities (in the case of nuclear energy).

In 2019, coal power generation in Canada produced up to 45 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, while nuclear power generation produced only 16 thousand tonnes of waste, which is 2,800 times less.

Interestingly, solar and wind generation produce more waste per kilowatt than nuclear generation. While the decomposition period of fiberglass from wind turbines is around 400 years, which is comparable to the decay period of some classes of radioactive waste, low-active nuclear waste typically returns to background levels of radiation within a few years, whereas spent nuclear fuel takes thousands of years to decay.

When supporting the development of electricity generation to achieve the goal of carbon-free energy by 2050 in Canada, waste generation, land area for production, and the material throughput required for production must all be taken into account.