NWMO expands international cooperation

17 May 2018


NWMO president and CEO, Laurie Swami (right), with Thomas Ernst, CEO of Nagra (Switzerland), in Toronto on May 14, 2018Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced it has signed or renewed cooperation agreements with counterparts from Belgium, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The agreements were signed at the International Association for Environmentally Safe Disposal of Radioactive Materials (EDRAM) 2018 meeting in Toronto.  

Laurie Swami, president and CEO of  NWMO said the agreements will ensure that NWMO is applying the best international practice to Canada's plan for management of used nuclear fuel, and sharing its experience globally. 

“As our work to identify a single, preferred site for a deep geological repository intensifies, now is the perfect time to renew and sign knowledge-sharing agreements with our international partners,” Swami said. 

Canada is currently considering five sites in Ontario as potential hosts for a deep geological repository. The sites are Hornepayne; Huron-Kinloss; Ignace; Manitouwadge and South Bruce. NWMO, which initially considered 21 sites, hopes to select a single site for detailed characterisation by 2023. 

NWMO, set up in 2002, already has cooperation agreements in place with Posiva in Finland, KORAD in South Korea and NUMO Japan, and says it is committed to international knowledge sharing.

Kim Rudd, Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jim Carr, noted that such international collaboration "is vital in the global imperative to safely manage used nuclear fuel to protect people and the environment.”


Photo: NWMO president and CEO, Laurie Swami (right), with Thomas Ernst, CEO of Nagra (Switzerland), in Toronto on 14 May 2018



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