Two new reports have been released in regards to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization's site selection work in South Bruce and Ignace.
Both reports deal with climate.
The NWMO is looking at the two sites as a potential spot for a deep geologic repository to isolate used nuclear fuel.
The reports, developed by Golder Associates Ltd., examine how the climate may change in both areas, and point to an increase in precipitation and temperatures as well as drier summers over the next century.
Kelly Liberda is the Senior Engineer of Safety and Technical Research at the NWMO and says the findings in the reports lend a broader understanding of the climate at the potential repository sites in the decades following the start of operations, through the planned decommissioning of the repository.
In a release, NWMO officials point out the repository itself will be buried underground but some of the surface facilities will be more exposed to the immediate effects of a changing climate.
The information in the reports is based on technology used to calculate how weather patterns will change in the coming decades and into next century.
The studies project changes in climate in both South Bruce and Ignace over three separate time periods; when the repository is expected to begin operating between 2041 and 2070; in the middle of operations between 2071 and 2100; and when he repository could be moving towards decommissioning in the years beyond 2100.
