AECL has more than 50 years experience in safely handling, packaging, transporting, storing and disposing of radioactive waste in a sound, environmentally friendly manner at Chalk River (Ontario, Canada) and Whiteshell (Manitoba, Canada), and decommissioned sites including Douglas Point (Ontario, Canada). AECL also operates the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office (LLRWMO) on behalf of the Federal Government of Canada. The LLRWMO is responsible for the cleanup and monitoring of historic radioactive waste sites across Canada. Through our extensive R&D program and applications engineering, AECL has developed expertise in all areas of High-level and Intermediate/Low-level waste streams.

AECL’s leadership in this field was recognized as early as 1960 when the company participated in the IAEA’s study on decommissioning nuclear facilities. AECL was one of the first companies in the world to successfully decommission nuclear reactors. We decommissioned early Canadian research and prototype reactors at Chalk River, Whiteshell, Douglas Point, Gentilly 1 and Rolphton. The skills and processes developed during these projects were also used to decommission nuclear facilities for our customers at Tunney’s Pasture, in Kanata and Kipling Avenue, in Etobicoke. The Tunney’s Pasture commercial contract returned a former isotope production facility to green field status and subsequent use for normal residential/commercial business.

The Waste Management Operation at the Chalk River Laboratories (Ontario, Canada) operates waste processing and storage facilities for a wide range of radioactive, hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. The Waste Management Operation manages all wastes generated at the AECL laboratories, selected wastes from other AECL sites and radioactive wastes generated by external Canadian commercial generators (e.g., hospitals, research institutions, industry and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office).