The Whiteshell Laboratories (WL) site, located 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the first licensed nuclear site to be decommissioned in Canada.

For more than 35 years, WL has operated as a valuable nuclear research and information laboratory. Among other technologies and advances, dry storage containment facilities for used nuclear fuel were developed there.

Today, there are approximately 300 employees at the WL site working on a decommissioning plan to remove buildings and reduce the risks and liabilities of the AECL property. Only the Waste Management Area will remain until its contents are transferred to a permanent site.

AECL’s Underground Research Laboratory, located a short distance from Whiteshell, is also in the initial stages of decommissioning. Established in 1982, its purpose was to study the feasibility of safe disposal of nuclear fuel waste in a stable, low-permeability rock mass.

The decommissioning activities at WL and the Underground Research Laboratory are part of the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program.