LETTER

Canada, “a terrible example to the world”

 

World experts met in Ottawa, October 3-5, to discuss decommissioning and dismantling nuclear facilities. Delegates to the meeting of the Nuclear Energy Agency’s Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling, cohosted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) exchanged information about decommissioning policy, strategy and regulations.

Canada is an excellent place to see examples of how not to do decommissioning.

Three badly-flawed decommissioning projects are on the table in Canada: the widely criticized proposal for a giant radioactive landfill at Chalk River, and two proposals for “entombment” of old reactor facilities, one on the Winnipeg River and the other on the Ottawa River at Rolphton, Ontario. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, “entombment” is to be employed in exceptional circumstances, such as after a severe accident. “Entombment” and above-ground land-filling of long-lived radioactive wastes are being promoted by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), a multinational consortium contracted by the previous Conservative government to cut costs for nuclear decommissioning in Canada.

A petition, House of Commons e-petition 1220, asks the government to suspend the environmental assessments (EA) of the three decommissioning projects and strip the CNSC of its decision-making role in environmental assessment as recommended by the Expert Panel on EA reform in April of this year. The Expert Panel noted that the CNSC is not sufficiently independent of the industry it regulates to be responsible for EA decisions about nuclear projects. The e-petition has been signed by Canadians from ten provinces and two territories.

Our international guests know that an above-ground landfill is only acceptable for very low-level radioactive waste and entirely inadequate for wastes that will endure for a hundred thousand years. The proposed Chalk River mound would contaminate the Ottawa River and drinking water for millions of Canadians downstream for millennia. This is a terrible example to set for the world.

Dr Gordon Edwards, President,
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Ottawa / Montreal