Five companies have been awarded a design and engineering contract to prepare plans for a depository for spent nuclear fuel in northwestern Ontario, Canada.

The Deep Geological Repository (DGR) will store the spent fuel 700m underground.

CBC reports that it will cost $26bn over its lifetime. Site selection has been ongoing for a decade.

The non-profit Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) selected Canadian consultant WSP to oversee architectural design and engineering, including design of the mine and waste rock pile, shafts, headframes and hoisting design for the used fuel packaging plant.

America’s Kiewit will be responsible for above-ground construction, while Canada’s Hatch will undertake underground mine and waste rock management, plus shaft, headframe and hoisting systems for the repository.

Thyssen Mining will design the underground mine service, test and demonstration area, as well as the sinking of three shafts into the repository.

Finally, Kinectrics will conduct in-depth nuclear operations management expertise for development and planning of the project’s design, oversight and assurance framework and quality assurance programs.

Karen Fritz, WSP’s senior vice-president of nuclear in Canada, said: “Creating a solution for used fuel storage will enable the pursuit of greater nuclear energy production in Canada, a key resource in driving the energy transition.”

Construction on the project will only begin once a regulatory process and an indigenous-led regulatory assessment are completed.