Currently, Canada has 6 active nuclear power plants in operation around the country: five in Ontario and one in New Brunswick. In 2018, nuclear power generated around 15% of Canada’s electricity. Whether or not nuclear is the way of the future, it’s here and is helping power our homes. Should we continue down this path of nuclear energy, and is it ethical?
The Canadian nuclear problem
Canada has the same problem concerning nuclear power as the rest of the world: nuclear waste. Nuclear waste presents a unique problem as it is radioactive, and will continue to be so for tens of thousands of years. As of early 2024, nuclear waste is commonly stored in what is called “dry storage containers”, reinforced concrete, and steel containers holding used uranium fuel cells from reactors. These containers are stored above ground and have to be maintained diligently every few decades or so to maintain safety. They are a temporary fix only, but there is no nuclear waste in the world currently housed in long-term storage.
Finland is the closest country to having an operational long-term storage site, and locations for others have been finalized in Sweden, Switzerland, and France; The latter countries still project decades before finalized sites. Finland projects the site to start housing nuclear waste starting this year in 2024.
Digging a tunnel 450m to bedrock is our current best plan for storing the radioactive waste, but more sites will need to be built to house any percentage of the world’s current waste. Canada alone has already produced ~3.2 million used nuclear fuel bundles, and an additional 90,000 more each year. The impact long-term storage may have on future generations is currently unknown. Radioactive leak damage is projected to be minimal if we can leave the sites alone for ten thousand years at least. We hope to dissuade future excavation with a warning sign, whose eerie message is listed at the bottom of this article.
Decommissioning options
In 2012, Canada started decommissioning Gentilly-2, a nuclear reactor that was operating in Quebec for economic purposes. Nuclear reactors are given an initial operating license of about 40 years. After that, licenses can be extended if all safety regulations are maintained, which usually requires extensive, constant repairs. Decommissioning can require about 50 years before the reactor is completely decommissioned. At that time, the facilities are used to house nuclear waste in temporary storage containers.
Also, according to current global operating projections, uranium deposits can only fuel global nuclear power for another couple of centuries at the most. However, research is underway in Chinese CANDU reactors to search for ways that they can recycle used fuel from other nuclear power plants, reducing the volume of nuclear waste. This ambitious project could extend nuclear power for a couple of years.
All of this means most countries are treating nuclear power as a temporary energy source, so why do we use it? Nuclear power emits very low concentrations of CO2 in our atmosphere. The numbers of CO2 emitted are nearly the same as hydropower. With the amount of energy nuclear power plants produce, nuclear is seen as a very good option to transition the world to a net zero future. Nuclear power can be used effectively for the next century or two as better infrastructure is put in place to utilize more renewable energy sources.
As well, we cannot discuss decommissioning without mentioning the benefit of reducing nuclear weapons. Some countries with a supply of nuclear weapons have pledged to decommission the weapons for use in nuclear reactors. This, along with uranium deposits and collection adds to the economies that can trade for profit.
Uranium Reserve Portland Creek, Newfoundland
Infini Resources is an Australian energy company focused on exploring uranium and lithium options and deposits in Canada and Western Australia. Multiple anomalies were discovered in Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1970’s by a Newfoundland government stream sediment sampling program. Mostly untouched since then, the land is now set to be explored and researched extensively for the prospect of opening a new uranium extraction site on the Island. Because uranium is set to deplete in a century, and more nuclear reactors are set to begin operation around the world, the price of uranium is set to rise, leading to a possibility for high profits.
The company’s Half-Yearly Report, released on March 12th, 2024 confirmed a 100% interest in the exploration and analysis of Portland Creek’s potential. They intend to use funds raised from a “Public Offer” to start the project and define targets for drill testing. Read more about the Portland Creek Project.
Fission vs Fusion
The processes that have been mentioned throughout this article contain information about the current state of Nuclear Fission reactors. There are currently no nuclear fusion reactors operational in the world, but multiple projects are underway. Another example of the benefits of nuclear research includes advancements in nuclear fusion technologies. If current projects can develop quickly, we could be transitioning from fission to fusion before uranium supplies deplete.
Nuclear fusion does not create the long-term radioactive waste that is produced by fission. Instead, the type of reaction that powers the sun is created on Earth using huge conductors of magnetic fields. The Russian Tokamak-15 is likely to be the first practical fusion reactor. According to Dr. Arthur Turrell, “(Nuclear Fusion)… is the power source of the stars, but it is also the only power source that can take us to the stars too.”
Warning Signs
Lastly, I want to display our warning to future generations. Because there are no long-term nuclear waste storage sites currently in use, this warning is only a suggestion for what to display. Sandia National Laboratories released a report in 1993 with the goal of communicating a series of messages non-linguistically to any future visitors of a nuclear waste site. It was recommended by Sandia National Laboratories to display a multilayered warning for future generations to understand the danger and uselessness of the radioactive materials in storage. In a time when societies have trouble coming to a consensus over issues big and small, the warning seems to condemn our human nature to the core. The need for the warning sign assumes our curiosity in the future will be unyielding to a detrimental level.
The following message is an example of what those warnings should evoke:
This place is a message… and part of a system of messages… pay attention to it!
Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
This place is not a place of honour… no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
The danger is in a particular location… it increases towards a center… the center of danger is here… of a particular size and shape, and below us.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.