A decision on how to store Canada's nuclear waste could come as early as this summer, said a spokesperson for the federal minister of natural resources.

Canada is running out of storage room at its nuclear power stations, but the controversial issue hasn't been in the political spotlight since a 2005 report suggested waste be buried deep in the ground.

A plan to deal with waste from nuclear power plants like the one in Pickering, east of Toronto, could be a political hot potato this year.
(Kevin Frayer/ Canadian Press)

It received some high-profile attention Tuesday, however, when Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was asked whether he supports increased use of nuclear power during a speech to Toronto's business community.

"As long as I'm not able to look Canadians in the eyes and say I'm comfortable with the waste, I will not recommend it," he said.

Canada's nuclear industry says there's already a safe plan to deal with radioactive waste.

In a report handed to the federal government in November 2005, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) recommended spent fuel rods be buried for a million years. The plan said the material could be retrieved at any time in case new technology provided a better way to dispose of it.

Kathleen Olson, the director of communications for Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says he has been reviewing the plan and will soon take it to cabinet.

Nuclear energy is one of Lunn's priorities for the new year, said Olson, who said she expects a decision on the waste recommendations will be made within six months.

"I think there's considerable potential for it to be a hot potato," she said.

Mark Winfield, with the Alberta-based environmental research group the Pembina Institute, said the timing could conflict with an expected spring election.

"One could imagine that the government would be sensitive to the notion of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization attempting to initiate conversations with host communities all over Northern Ontario, Quebec [or] Manitoba in the middle of an election campaign," said Winfield.

Moving the waste to its new home would affect communities around the storage facility, he said.

"It's estimated that there would be two to three truckloads a day, every working day for 30 years, to move material to a central storage facility."

The president of the Canadian Nuclear Association downplays the concerns, saying other countries bury radioactive waste in geological repositories.

"That is, in fact, what has been done in Sweden and Finland [and is] being planned in France," said Murray Elston.

The report recommended the eventual storage site come from one of the four provinces involved in nuclear fuel production — New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The NWMO is made up of energy executives from those four provinces.

Saskatchewan is the world's biggest producer of uranium used in nuclear power plants. The other three provinces have nuclear plants.