The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is to renew the operating licences for three AECL facilities: the Chalk River Laboratories, the Maple reactors, and the new processing facility (NPF). All of these facilities are located in Chalk River, Ontario. The licence for the Chalk River Laboratories is valid until July 2006. The licences for the Maple reactors and the NPF are valid until May 2005.
The licence depends on financial guarantees for decommissioning all the facilities within the Chalk River Laboratory boundaries. AECL must submit a proposal for this purpose before the end of December 2003 to be presented to the Commisison at a public hearing CNSC also approved amendments to the power reactor and waste facility operating licences held by Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power, to include conditions on decommissioning plans and a consolidated financial guarantee for decommissioning. The Darlington,. Pickering and Bruce licences were amended, along with or the Western and Pickering Waste Management Facilities. Finally, the CNSC approved the Environmental Assessment Guidelines that will be used to direct a screening environmental assessment of the proposed Pickering dry storage facility.
