ECC/Quantum Murray awarded $98M Port Hope Area Initiative contract

(source: PHAI)

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has awarded the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) Long-Term Waste Management Facility contract to the joint venture ECC/Quantum Murray, LP of Toronto.

The Port Hope Area Initiative is the federal government’s commitment to respond to the community-recommended solutions for the cleanup and local, long-term, safe management of historic low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington in Ontario.

The contract includes the construction of the remaining storage cells at the Port Hope Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility, the excavation and placement of LLRW from the existing Welcome Waste Management Facility, as well as receipt and placement of LLRW from the remediation of various sites throughout the Municipality of Port Hope, and final closure of the facility.

ECC/Quantum Murray has experience in environmental remediation work in North America, including construction of the first cell of the highly engineered aboveground mound at the Port Hope facility that will store waste from the cleanup of various sites in the community.

“With the completion of Cell 1 scheduled this fall and the contract to operate the facility now in place, the site will be ready to receive waste, and remediation in Port Hope can begin early next year,” said Craig Hebert, General Manager Historic Waste Program Management Office (formerly the PHAI Management Office), in a media release.

Work to be completed under the contract, which is the largest that the PHAI will undertake, includes the construction of the three remaining storage cells designed to safely isolate low-level radioactive waste by encasing the waste with multi-layer base liner and surface cover systems.

The contractor will also complete the supporting infrastructure required at the site, including internal waste haul roads, vehicle portal monitors to measure radiation levels, and weigh scales to track waste volumes. A decontamination station will be built to ensure that trucks are free of contamination before leaving the site.

“This is our third project award with CNL at Port Hope in the last two years, and we are proud of the relationships we have built over the years through our JV with ECC,” said Adrian Montgomery, CEO, QM Environmental, in a release. “This new project is a testament of our continued commitment to the region and we are appreciative of CNL’s continued confidence in our team and its ability to deliver a superior project.”

Under previous contracts, work completed at the long-term waste management facility included construction of a dedicated access road built to municipal standards, and an advanced technology waste water treatment plant that is discharging treated effluent to Lake Ontario that meets or exceeds all discharge criteria.