Firms named for design of Canada’s CAN$4.5bn underground nuclear waste repository

The Nuclear Waste Management Organisation (NWMO) will work with WSP Canada, Peter Kiewit Sons, Hatch, Thyssen Mining Construction of Canada, and Kinetrics on the deep geological repository.

WSP will be responsible for all architectural design and engineering for the project, which is set to cost CAN$4.5 billion (US$3.2 billion) to build, according to a 2021 cost estimate.

WSP’s work excludes the engineering and design of the mine and waste rock pile, shafts, headframes and hoisting design and the used fuel packaging plant.

Kiewit will be responsible for all the above-ground construction design required to build the deep geological repository.

Hatch will be responsible for all aspects of the project related to underground mine and waste rock management, as well as shaft, headframe and hoisting systems related to the design and construction of the deep geological repository. It will also take responsibility for all aspects of the nuclear facilities and the used fuel packaging plant.

Thyssen Mining will oversee the underground mine construction design of the service, test and demonstration area, as well as the sinking of three shafts into the repository, while Kinetrics will provide in-depth nuclear operations management expertise.

The companies will work together as one co-located team to design and build the project, under an Integrated Project Delivery model.

But the NWMO said that construction on the project would only start once the deep geological repository has completed the federal government’s multi-year regulatory process and the Indigenous-led Regulatory Assessment and Approval Process, a sovereign regulatory process that will be developed and implemented by Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.

Canada’s existing nuclear reactors are expected to generate around 5.5 million used fuel bundles by the end of their planned operation, creating the need for a new repository in which to store them.

A cost estimate report for the NWMO in 2021 put the total cost of the project over its 175-year life cycle at CAN$26 billion in 2020 dollars.

The NWMO updates the cost estimate at least every five years.