PORT HOPE, ONT. — Ontario’s Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) cleanup of low-level radioactive waste in Port Hope, east of Toronto, is about to begin with the first truckloads of waste scheduled to be removed from the community and placed in long-term storage.
Beginning this month and continuing through the spring and summer, contaminated waste from three locations in the community will be transported to an engineered above-ground mound being constructed at the Long-Term Waste Management Facility, located south of Highway 401 between Baulch Road and Brand Road, said a recent media statement. The waste will be trucked along designated transportation routes.
The soil was contaminated from radium and uranium refining and processing operations of the former Crown corporation, Eldorado Nuclear, and its private sector predecessors, which operated from the 1930s to 1988.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is undertaking the PHAI on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a federal Crown corporation.
The project includes long-term management of approximately 1.2-million cubic metres of contaminated waste, cleanup of the waste from various sites in Port Hope and its transportation to the waste management facility.
The first waste to be remediated is currently stored under tarps at three locations — the Centre Pier, the Pine Street North Extension in the Highland Drive Landfill area and at the municipal sewage treatment plant. The Centre Pier will be the first site addressed.
“This is the beginning of the final chapter in addressing this long-standing environmental issue in Port Hope,” said Bryan Tyers, director of project delivery for the PHAI, in the statement.
Remediation at a number of residential properties will begin later in the spring.
Prior to the start of waste movement, fencing will be installed to restrict access to work areas for public safety and no road closures are anticipated. The removal of waste from the Centre Pier will enable the PHAI to use the pier as the staging area during the remediation of the Port Hope Harbour which will begin later this year.
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