Kincardine nuclear waste site gets federal seal of approval via The Star.com

Deep Geologic Repository proposed by Ontario Power Generation at its Bruce site is “not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects,” report concludes.

A federal panel has given an overall seal of approval to the controversial nuclear waste disposal site proposed for a subterranean crypt below the Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ont.

“The Panel concludes that the project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects” given the measures contemplated to curb them, says the report by the Joint Review Panel.

The panel’s favourable view of the project, proposed by Ontario Power Generation, overcomes a major regulatory hurdle in the construction of the Deep Geologic Repository, or DGR in industry jargon, which would see nuclear waste buried hundreds of metres underground near the shore of Lake Huron.

Supporters and opponents — there are 152 communities opposed to the project, including Toronto and Chicago — were poring over the report after it was released late Wednesday, examining closely the conditions that the panel says should be imposed before the project can proceed.

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However, environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. are likely to step up their opposition. Dozens of municipal councils around the Great Lakes are on record against it. Resolutions have also been presented in both houses of the U.S. Congress.