Award-winning innovation drives Laurentis material release success

Laurentis is transforming how Canada’s nuclear by-products are managed; moving material out of storage and back into productive use through innovation, collaboration, and rigorous science.

Through its Clean-Energy Materials Sorting and Recycling (CMSR) facility in Hamilton, Ontario, Laurentis’s material release program continues to set new benchmarks for environmental stewardship and cost efficiency across Canada’s nuclear supply chain.

The initiative demonstrates how legacy nuclear materials can be managed more sustainably – without compromising safety – while delivering tangible value to the industry and the public.

The CMSR facility is the product of a unique partnership between Laurentis and McMaster University, bringing together researchers, health physicists, and industry experts to modernize how low-level nuclear materials are assessed and handled. Since operations began in November 2020, CMSR staff have surveyed more than 20,000 cubic metres of material, achieving an average volume reduction of over 70 per cent through recategorization or recycling, and diverting eligible materials completely out of the waste stream.

That momentum continued in 2025.

In a single year, Laurentis released and diverted more than 1,300 cubic metres (130,000 kilograms) of low-level materials from interim storage — equivalent to more than 100 fully loaded standard garbage trucks.

This groundbreaking work was recognized on December 10, when Laurentis received the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries’ (OCNI) Supplier Excellence – Innovation Award at the OCNI Annual General Meeting and awards gala.