SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Environment & Responsible
Waste Management
Science and technology activities to support environmental stewardship and responsible nuclear waste management.
Federal priorities, commitments and goals
Overarching federal priorities and goals related to this theme area include:
- Maintain Canada’s national and international leadership related to demonstrating strong, science-based and risk-informed regulation with respect to historical, current and future applications of nuclear technologies.
- Support Canada’s environmental stewardship by ensuring that nuclear energy technologies are developed within a robust framework that addresses environmental and waste management concerns.
- Supporting the implementation of Canada’s Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change and related initiatives such as the SMR Roadmap and the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy through research to support transparent, science- and risk-based decision making related to the environmental behaviour of naturally occurring and anthropogenic radionuclides.
- Develop and demonstrate innovative technologies to reduce environmental impacts, increase competitiveness, and promote the use of clean technology including in Canada’s natural resource sectors.
Scope of Work
The scope of work in this theme area to address the federal priorities include:
Providing science and technology to support the understanding of the effects of radiation on the environment
- Improving the understanding of the migration of radioisotopes in the environment (terrestrial and aquatic), and their potential impacts on human health and non-human biota.
- Enhancing prediction methods of radionuclide concentrations in the environment during the recovery phase following an unplanned radioactive release.
Providing science and technology to support radioactive waste management
- Developing and improving technologies and techniques for characterizing (or analyzing) and treating radioactive waste and contaminated materials.
- Improving the understanding of fuel-supply waste streams for Small Modular Reactors.
- Developing strategies for identifying, characterizing and managing offsite contaminated materials (e.g. soils, building materials, etc.) in the short to medium term post emergency nuclear release.
- Advancing processing technologies for disposal and recovery.
- Increasing our understanding of the long-term performance and safety of radioactive waste disposal facilities.
Research results in this theme area can be explored in more detail here.