Deep Disposal

Canada is one of many countries around the world that use nuclear reactors to generate electrical power, in part to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet this energy produces hazardous, long-lived waste that emits dangerous radioactivity for tens of thousands of years. Nuclear waste, stored temporarily for decades, must be safely disposed of so it will not pose a serious threat to human health and the environment. This means placing it in locations deep underground in granite, sedimentary rock, or clay. Canadas ideal location is somewhere on the Canadian Shield, the 2.5-billion-year-old crystalline rock that undergirds much of the country. In 2010 several municipalities, most in Ontario, were asked to host the repository. In Deep Disposal William Leiss explains the challenges that have arisen in the preceding decade as various candidate sites have been evaluated as to their suitability for this purpose. High-level nuclear waste is the most hazardous byproduct of an energy source that is incredibly useful and increasingly in demand. Finding the ideal place to store it permanently is an urgent policy crisis facing our country. Deep Disposal reveals the nature of this crisis and how we might overcome it.