The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is providing some details of the economic impact an underground storage facility could have on communities in northwestern Ontario.
Five areas are still in the running for the 24 billion dollar project.
Bradley Hammond is the senior communications manager and says for a community like Ignace, it could mean as many as 11 hundred jobs during construction and another 13 hundred in the operational phase.
“We acknowlege this project has a potential to deliver a number of benefits to the preferred location, once it is selected in 2023. But we want to make sure the one’s we are working with have the information at their disposal to make those decisions.”
The final selection of a community to host the used nuclear fuel won’t be made until 2023, with actual operation of the underground facility to begin around 2045.
Communities still in the running also include Manitouadge, Hornpayne and two areas in the Bruce Peninsula.
(Photos: Current nuclear waste facility at Bruce Nuclear along with core samples from drilling programs for proposed nuclear waste disposal sites)
