Canada to reprocess other nations' nuclear waste ?

SHAWN MCCARTHY Globe and Mail September 5

Canada will eventually get into the business of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said yesterday as the government considers an invitation to join a major international effort to promote nuclear technology worldwide. As he headed to a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Australia yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was expected to face questions on whether Canada will join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a group of major nuclear powers dedicated to spreading nuclear technology into developing countries. U.S. President George W. Bush - who is leading the GNEP process - has suggested that, as a price of entry, major uranium-producing countries should agree to accept and dispose of nuclear waste from countries to which they sell the uranium for reactor fuel. Canada is the world's largest uranium producer, followed closely by Australia, whose government has already indicated an interest in joining the nuclear partnership.

"We're very seriously looking at our options but a final decision has not been made on it yet," Mr. Lunn said yesterday. "There are some benefits that we would want to be looking for, but I believe there could be some advantages for Canada to be an official member of the GNEP." He said the newly formed group is reviewing its own principles. He said that it is not practical to require producing countries to accept nuclear waste from their customers, particularly those that have adequate storage facilities of their own. But he would not comment on whether Canada would sign on if it was required to accept nuclear waste from other countries. The minister recently announced that the government had approved a plan for long-term storage of nuclear waste, in which the spent fuel would be kept at the reactor site for 30 years, then moved to a centralized storage facility for eventual burial deep underground.