Update on the Whiteshell Reactor #1 project

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has proposed the decommissioning of Whiteshell Reactor #1 (WR-1).

The proposed project is located on the Whiteshell Laboratories site, which is located in the homeland of the Métis Nation and Treaty 3 territory, as well as the traditional territory of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples.

We will provide regular updates on the project as work continues on the environmental assessment (EA) and licensing technical review.

Where we are now

Our licensing technical assessments of CNL’s proposal are ongoing, and CNL continues to develop and revise documents supporting its licence application to address our comments.

With respect to the EA, CNL submitted a revised draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and supporting documentation to the CNSC on June 28, 2022. The submission is currently being assessed by CNSC staff to determine if it is sufficiently complete to proceed to a detailed technical review by the federal-provincial-Indigenous review team.

Following the detailed technical review, if we deem the information submitted by CNL to be sufficient for the purposes of the EA and licensing requirements, our staff will develop an EA report and a licensing Commission member document (CMD). The EA report and CMD will be publicly posted in advance of public Commission hearings, and will summarize our staff’s technical assessments, findings and recommendations to the Commission for decisions on the EA and licence application. If we deem the information submitted by CNL to be incomplete, CNL will need to revise its EIS and supporting documentation before resubmitting it to the CNSC.

Outreach

We conducted several webinars on CNL’s in situ decommissioning projects and related information in 2021 and early 2022. Recordings of these webinars are available on our YouTube channel.

We will continue to engage on the WR-1 Project and are planning future webinars and outreach events related to CNL’s in situ decommissioning proposals as these projects progress.