A region in northern Ontario was chosen Thursday as the site to hold Canada’s nuclear waste in a deep geological repository, a critical milestone in a $26-billion, decades-long project to bury millions of used fuel bundles underground.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a non-profit body funded by the corporations that generate nuclear power and waste, announced that Ignace in northwestern Ontario will be the site, after both the town’s council and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation were willing to move forward.