OPG breaks ground on new nuclear materials sorting facility

This December, OPG put shovels in the ground on a new nuclear materials sorting facility in Kincardine, near the Western location of OPG’s Nuclear Sustainability Services.

The ground-breaking ceremony held on Thursday, Dec. 16, officially kicked off construction of the Western Clean-Energy Sorting and Recycling (WCSR) building, a collaboration between OPG, its subsidiary Laurentis Energy Partners, and Dancor Construction Ltd.

Set to be built at the Bruce Energy Centre industrial park, the innovative facility will span 42,000 square feet and employ about 25 people when it is operational in 2022, pending approvals.

OPG will operate the new facility, which will sort and segregate low-level radioactive materials from the company’s nuclear operations, such as used worker garments, small tools, mops and rags. The goal is to reduce volumes through processing and maximize the recycling and free release of clean materials.

Volume reduction of these materials lessen the need for new storage buildings, cut the cost of decommissioning stations, and reduce the amount of space needed in interim storage and eventual permanent disposal facilities.

The operation of the WCSR building will be based partly on learnings from a research partnership between Laurentis and McMaster University.

“This new facility represents an opportunity to support the three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – and reduce our environmental footprint,” said Jason Wooland, Director of Western Operations for OPG’s Nuclear Sustainability Services. “We can minimize the amount of nuclear by-products in storage, by carefully sorting and segregating what is clean, what is recyclable, and what can be processed to reduce the volume. That’s good news for the environment – and it’s resulting in new jobs in Kincardine.”

In agreement with Laurentis Energy Partners, Energy Solutions Canada will be providing licencing support for the new facility. To learn more about the WCSR project, visit the Laurentis Energy Partners website.