About the Process

Since 2010, the NWMO has been engaged in a multi-year, community-driven process to identify a site where Canada’s used nuclear fuel can be safely contained and isolated in a deep geological repository.

The site selection process emerged through a two-year dialogue. It reflects the ideas, experience and best advice of a broad cross-section of Canadians who shared their thoughts on what an open, transparent, fair and inclusive process for making this decision would include. It is built on a set of guiding principles and was developed within our ethical and social framework. The process consists of nine steps.

The process is community driven. It is designed to ensure, above all, that the site selected is safe, secure, and has an informed and willing host. The process must meet the highest scientific, professional and ethical standards. The safety and appropriateness of any potential site will be evaluated through a series of progressively more detailed scientific, technical and social assessments.

The site selection process requires that communities in an area take the initiative to enter and to move through the process. The process is collaborative. Interested communities are encouraged to engage with First Nation and Métis communities, as well as with municipalities in the surrounding area. The project will only proceed with interested communities, First Nation and Métis communities, and surrounding municipalities, working together to implement it.

We anticipate that over the course of implementing the process, there will be opportunities to learn along the way. Adaptability will also help ensure that the needs of individual communities are addressed. This may mean that different communities are at different points in the process at any given time, either because they decided to enter the process on different dates, or because each took their own time at a given step.