Vice-President's Response - Decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility Project

Physical Activities

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is proposing a project to decommission the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility in Bécancour, Quebec. The facility includes a partially decommissioned and permanently shutdown prototype nuclear reactor and supporting structures. As proposed, the project, which is being carried out on federal land, is divided into three phases. Phase 2, storage with surveillance, is currently under way. Phase 3 involves dismantling and decontaminating all remaining systems, structures and components and restoring the site. The designation request is for phase 3 and for the transport of nuclear waste.

Delegation of Powers to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

Under subsection 154(1) of the Impact Assessment Act (the IAA), the Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Nature (the Minister) may, subject to any terms and conditions that the Minister specifies, delegate to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) any powers, duties, or functions that the Minister is authorized to exercise or perform under the IAA. The Minister delegated to the President or Vice-President of Operations of IAAC the authority to respond to requests for designation, for which limitations on designation described under subsection 9(7) of the IAA apply.

Decision

Non-designated physical activities

Reasons

Pursuant to subsection 9(7) of the IAA, the Minister must not exercise their power to designate if the carrying out of the physical activity has substantially begun or if a federal authority has exercised a power or performed a duty or function conferred on it under any Act of Parliament other than this Act that could permit the physical activity to be carried out, in whole or in part. Therefore, the Minister cannot designate the decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility for the following reasons:

• The carrying out of the physical activity has substantially begun.
  • The decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility has been underway since 1984.
• A federal authority, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, exercised a power conferred on it under a federal act other than the IAA, namely the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, that could permit the physical activity to be carried out in whole or in part.
  • A waste facility decommissioning licence was issued in 2014 for the decommissioning of the Gentilly-1 Waste Facility.