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The president of Canada’s nuclear safety regulator said Tuesday he was surprised by public and media interest in what he described as minor, harmless leaks of water — including radioactive water — last December at the Chalk River, Ont., nuclear reactor operated by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL).
But Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) president Michael Binder told MPs the commission and AECL have re-evaluated their communications protocol in the wake of the leaks at the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor, and will establish a new proactive system of disclosure — even for events that pose no health risk, and may seem like routine variations on normal operating procedure.
“Given that we deemed the December leak at the NRU to be of low safety significance, we were caught by surprise at the level of interest that events generated,” Mr. Binder told MPs on the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee.
“I’m surprised that you’re surprised,“said Nathan Cullen, a B.C.NDP MP. “I’m finding it hard to reconcile the history of this particular reactor over the last 18 months.”
In December 2007, the NRU was shut down after AECL failed to meet safety standards imposed by the CNSC. That prompted a medical and political crisis that would eventually cost Linda Keen, Binder’s predecessor, her job. AECL also ended up with a new chief executive in the wake of that crisis, a crisis caused in part by communications problems between the regulator, AECL staff at Chalk River, and government officials.
About a year later, on Dec. 15, 2008, Canwest News Service first reported that 7,000 litres of water a day was leaking from a pipe at the NRU, the reactor where more than half of the world’s medical isotopes are manufactured. Medical isotopes can be a vital tool for doctors to diagnose and treat serious illnesses such as cancer. The isotopes produced at Chalk River, northwest of Ottawa, help about 20 million people in 80 countries around the world every year.
The leak reported by Canwest in December interrupted the production of medical isotopes and caused significant treatment delays for doctors and their patients.
Canwest also learned there had been a leak on Dec. 5 of heavy water — water that contained radioactive tritium.
“(There was) a minor spill of tritiated water on the reactor hall floor,” the source, an engineer, told Canwest on Dec. 14, on condition of anonymity. “Operators now must wear protective clothing inside the reactor hall because of the beta fields.”
But when Canwest questioned an AECL official in December about this leak, they denied it occurred. AECL now says Canwest had inquired about a radioactive leak from a different piece of equipment in December, and that equipment did not have a leak.
The regulator, CNSC, did not respond to Canwest’s inquiries about either leak.
News of the leak of radioactive water was eventually reported in mid-January, prompting calls by MPs for an investigation into the matter.
In a report tabled in Parliament by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, both the CNSC and AECL confirmed the existence of both leaks, and said 47 kilograms of leaked radioactive water collected at AECL’s Chalk River Laboratory was to be released back into the Ottawa River in such a way that it would be diluted and pose no risk to human or environmental health.
“There was no coverup.There was no risks to health, safety or the environment from these events,” Mr. Binder said.
That water was, in fact, discharged into the Ottawa River in small amounts in January and February.
AECL had another minor spill of heavy water at Chalk River over the weekend and, though AECL had no legal requirement to do so, it voluntarily disclosed that information on its website. As with the December leak, AECL and CNSC say there was no safety or health threat associated with the weekend leak.
“So the lessons learned from the December event are being implemented,” Mr. Binder said.
© 2009 The National Post