The transportation of nuclear waste down Highway 17 and into the United States still has a few hurdles to jump before becoming reality, although according to a recent document issued by the National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy, it will be happening.

The scheme is part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), which aims to “reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological material located at civilian sites worldwide.”

Essentially, the initiative has three elements: the conversion of research and isotope production reactors to the use of low enriched uranium (LEU) from the currently used highly enriched uranium (HEU), which poses a potential security risk, as it has the potential to be turned into nuclear weaponry.

As an HEU-fuelled reactor, the NRU at Chalk River has basically been producing weapons-grade uranium as waste material for decades, much of which had its origin south of the border, and now the goal is to send it back to the U.S. to hopefully prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, or causing a nuclear disaster right in our backyard.

The same document states that the transport of spent fuel material from both the NRU and the now-defunct NRX is scheduled to begin in late 2013, and that the shipping of residue from the production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 is to commence “between spring and fall of 2013” and will “likely result in one shipment a week for approximately a year.”

However, according to officials at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, no application for any transport of HEU has been filed, which is a necessary step if any shipping is to take place.

What has been filed, and is currently under review, is an application for approval of a design for a container that would be used to transport just such material.

“If the package is approved,” explains an email response from the CNSC, “anyone who wishes to use it for the transport of enriched uranium would have to submit a transport security plan for approval by the CNSC and would require a CNSC transport licence before any shipment can take place.”

When asked whether the NNSA’s estimate of a summer start to the shipments, CNSC public and media relations chief advisor Aurèle Gervais was non-commital.

“The application would have to be reviewed by staff,” he told The Daily Observer in a telephone interview, “and staff would have to be satisfied that it meets all the requirements.

“There’s not a specific time frame for any of this type of licence,” he continued, though he underscored the importance of such regulation and offered reassurance that the process would not be rushed at the expense of safety.

“It’ll take the time that it needs to make sure that safety is maintained and that the transport will not pose a risk to the public or to the environment.”

Although any details of the specifics of the transportation are kept secret for obvious security reasons and in accordance with Canadian law, the NNRA documents do say that the material will be transported from Chalk River to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina, and that each container of nuclear waste would have its own dedicated truck, protected by each province and state’s police or highway patrol service.

It also states that the shipments will be spread over the course of the next four years, and that no transportation will occur during “the harsh Canadian winter months.”

Ryan Paulsen is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist

Twitter: @PRyanPaulsen

ryan.paulsen@sunmedia.ca