Nuclear may not immediately come to mind when thinking of the circular economy, but in many ways, circularity is integral to the Canadian nuclear sector. For reasons of cost, security, and safety – and the fact that the core of the industry is about clean energy solutions – nuclear has been quietly leading in sustainable practices. This includes both the new build and refurbishment side of the industry (the very word refurbishment denotes its sustainable underpinnings), as well as the decommissioning of redundant and old facilities.
The Science Collaboration Centre at Chalk River Laboratories was constructed using more than 1,350 metres cubed of mass timber
The interior of the Science Collaboration Centre at Chalk River Laboratories displays the beauty of mass timber construction
At the storied Chalk River Laboratories, the use of mass timber in the construction of its new buildings highlights the progress that Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has made over the past few years to revitalize the historic site, which is owned by the federal Crown corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The work to upgrade the legacy facilities, many of which were built 70 or more years ago, will enable today’s generation of nuclear scientists and engineers to continue their research on a modern campus. Laying the groundwork for the new builds is one of Canada’s largest and most complex decommissioning and environmental remediation campaigns.
While more discreet than the beauty of mass timber, CNL’s company-wide waste minimization strategy is ensuring that – where possible – demolition debris and equipment from the dismantling of old buildings is being diverted for recycling and reuse. An ambitious target set in 2023 to align with the federal government’s Greening Government Strategy, which is reinforced in CNL’s Sustainability Strategy, targets the diversion of at least 90 per cent of demolition and construction waste from landfill by 2030.
In the last nine months, several CNL projects have achieved notable feats when it comes to sustainable decommissioning and meeting that 90 per cent diversion rate target,. In 2025, the decommissioning team dismantled a support facility to one of Chalk River Laboratories’ flagship research reactors, which was best known for supplying the world with life-saving medical isotopes for almost 70 years. Construction and demolition material from the demolition of this support facility included metal, rubble, and wood. 94 per cent of the soft strip strcuture was diverted from landfill for use in animal bedding, biofuel, soil additives, or as aggregate and metal was sent for recycling.
Workers progressing decommissioning work at Chalk River Laboratories
Protective equipment and clothing is often required due to the asbestos in many of the buildings undergoing decommissioning
For a sense of scale, that 94 per cent represents 227,640 kilograms of material that was put back into use either at Chalk River Laboratories or via external recycling vendors. That achievement not only generated cost savings for the project, but it reduced CNL’s impact to the environment, both by avoiding the environmental cost of creating new materials and by limiting landfill use.
This material has several purposes. For example, some of the external recycling vendors reuse the soft-strip or wood material to create biofuels and animal bedding. Jennifer Turcotte, CNL’s Manager of Clearable Waste for Chalk River Laboratories is excited about the success of the program and where it’s going, “This work is near and dear to my heart. In fact, the very first recycling program here in Renfrew County [where CNL’s Chalk River campus is located] was started at my high school by a friend,” she explained. “This career is also my passion and I’m proud of our team’s success. With our program, CNL is looking to find new disposition paths for anything and everything that currently goes to landfill.”
At a small reactor site more than five hundred kilometres across the province of Ontario from Chalk River, CNL is decommissioning the first full-scale nuclear power generating station in Canada – Douglas Point, which is located within the Bruce nuclear site on Lake Huron. For the work planned for this decade (the non-nuclear buildings, nuclear support buildings, and reactor components), CNL has projected that more than 90 per cent of the material will be reused or recycled. To date, the team is on track to meet that objective as demonstrated in the last quarter of 2024, when the decommissioning team took down the Administration Building, one of the non-nuclear buildings. For instance, steel from the decommissioned buildings is sent to local scrap metal businesses – supporting small businesses and the circular supply chain.
Construction of Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station in 1962
The entire Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station, including the reactor and support buildings, was built in the early 1960s. Generations of staff used the Administration Building for office space until 2018, which was long after the reactor ceased generating electricity in the mid-1980s. With the demolition of the Administration Building, CNL applied its waste minimization strategy, successfully diverting 92 per cent of non-hazardous material from the landfill. This means 686,705 kg of metal and concrete were sent for reuse or recycling, using local and small businesses for scrap metal where possible, and engaging the wider nuclear supply chain for decontamination services and support in order to amplify reusability. As the reactor decommissioning project continues, CNL anticipates continuing to meet that company-wide target of 90 per cent of demolition debris going back into circulation.
A hose sprays water to suppress dust as an environmental protection measure during dismantling of the Administration Building at Douglas Point
An aerial image of the footprint of the Douglas Point Administration Building shows sorted piles of demolition debris – a first step for recycling and reuse
Chalk River Laboratories, the birthplace of nuclear in Canada, is undergoing a significant site revitalization – underpinned by sustainability in new building and legacy decommissioning
Returning to Chalk River Laboratories, the scale of the site revitalization underscores the importance of CNL’s waste minimization policy. Since 2015, CNL’s decommissioning teams have taken down 127 buildings at the site, with 95 more planned by the end of the decade. By 2030, CNL estimates its decommissioning efforts at Chalk River Laboratories will have produced 400,000 kg of clearable or “clean” waste, also referred to as construction and demolition (“C&D”) waste, which is waste that has been verified as non-radioactive and suitable for conventional landfill. If CNL meets its 90 per cent diversion goal, which has been achievable at Chalk River and Douglas Point so far, then 360,000 kg of material will avoid landfill, at a minimum.
Also worth mentioning, the decommissioning teams have diverted nearly one hundred per cent of concrete generated from decommissioning at Chalk River Laboratories over the past two years, which is then processed for on-site reuse at Chalk River. For example, it has been repurposed for uses such as shoring for bank retention and is primarily processed into approved granular “A” and “B” aggregate products, replacing the need to purchase aggregate for many CNL projects.
Dilhari Fernando, CNL’s Chief Sustainability Strategy Officer, emphasized, “At CNL we are on a sustainability journey. Diversion efforts in our environmental remediation mission reflect how effective legacy waste management can drive real change. What we are doing here is an example of the kind of circularity that is essential in the transition to a net zero economy.”
