The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has allocated 175 thousand dollars to seven applicants, as they prepare for hearings into the plan to bury low and intermediate level radioactive waste at the Bruce nuclear site in Tiverton.
The project will hold waste currently stored on the Bruce nuclear site, as well as waste from the nuclear generating stations at Bruce, Pickering and Darlington.
Officials say the repository will not be used to store used nuclear fuel.
Ontario Power Generation PG wants to bury the waste 680 metres underground and the groups that will receive funding, are getting ready for the federal environmental assessment of the project.
Among the groups getting funding are the Power Workers Union, and the Sierra Club of Canada.
Nuclear Waste Management of Ontario Spokesperson Marie Wilson says it is the latest step in getting approval for the project.
She says the funding allows groups to be involved in the process, by hiring technical experts and cover travel costs to the hearings.
Wilson says the next step is for a Joint Review Panel to be set up.
There will then be a public review period for the environmental impact statement, that will last about six months.
Wilson says there are a lot of scientific studies involved, and the general public must be informed about the project and how safe it is.
OPG claims their project is safe for the environment, and people living in the area.
Public hearings — possibly in Kincardine — are expected to start in 2012 and the project could get underway in 2013 with the first nuclear waste stored 5 years later in 2018.
The funding recipients are: Sierra Club Canada, Northwatch Coalition for Environmental Protection, Power Workers’ Union, Canadian Environmental Law Association, Huron-Grey-Bruce Citizens Committee on Nuclear Waste, Great Lakes United, and the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.
