Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is closely following developments at the Hanford nuclear waste site in Washington State after a tunnel containing nuclear waste was reported have collapsed May 9.

In a May 10 email, Fred Kuntz, OPG’s Manager, Corporation Relations and Communications for Bruce County stated that Hanford is a very different facility from OPG’s proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR):

• Different depth: Hanford is a shallow tunnel, about 3 metres deep; OPG’s DGR would be 680 metres deep in stable rock with high mechanical strength.
• Different waste: Hanford stores U.S. military plutonium waste; OPG’s DGR will store only low- and intermediate-level waste from its nuclear generating stations.
• Different kind of facility: Hanford is a rail tunnel containing abandoned, contaminated railway cars; OPG’s facility would be a purpose-built, designed and engineered deep repository, closely monitored both during and after its operations.

However, Kuntz reported that OPG would look to incorporate any learning from the Hanford incident into the OPG project.